Half Life: Two Man War
by Senatvs Popvlvsqve Romanvs
Summary: At the same time Gordon was awakened by the G-Man, USMC Corporal Adrian Shephard was awakened. After putting aside their differences, they team together with Alyx and lead the rebellion against the Combine.
1. Rude Awakenings: Part 1

**Hello! This is my first story, so be sure to point out anything in the reviews :) I have always thought how badass it would be if Cpl Sheppard came back in Hl2, so I wrote it down. This is the result. Updates will probably be quite far apart since I am doing my GCSEs this year. Oh and, for the purpose of story telling, both Gordan and Sheppard talk. But I will try to make it that Gordan doesn't talk much. You will probably see his thoughts more his actual speech.  
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**N.B The first two chapters (which I am uploading the same time) are basically recaps of HL and OPFOR and merged with their respective openings for HL2.  
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**Half-Life: Two Man War: Rude Awakenings Pt. 1 **

It all felt like a dream. The last real memory that Gordon Freeman had in his mind was that.....choice he was offered in the aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident. Either accept an employment offer from the mysterious man that was.....observing him throughout the entire incident or be left to die on Xen. He could remember the entire exchange like it had happened a moment ago.

_He had done it, Nailiath had been killed, or rather destroyed. His body was spinning while large shocks of electricity erupted from around him. Then, suddenly, Gordon saw a great flash and he was suddenly standing before a man wearing a tight blue suit complete with a blue tie and briefcase. He reconsigned this man, this was the man that was watching him from different parts of Black Mesa. He felt a sudden urge to shoot him, but his sidearm was not there when he reached for it. Gordon tried to speak, but some unknown force was preventing him from doing so. Gordon looked around, he knew that he was still on Xen. _

"_Well, at least I still have this Hazard Suit." Gordon though, relieved. The man before him spoke. _

"_Gordon Freeman in the flesh....or rather in the Hazard Suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons, then most of them were....government property. As for the suit, I think you deserved it" Then suddenly, another green light erupted around him, and the scenery changed once again. The "sky" was still that of Xen, but it was mixed with terrain from Earth. The place was a war zone. The wreckage's of Abrams MBTs and dead Marines lay in the sand around him. The man continued as if nothing had happened._

"_The border world, Xen, in in our control, for the time being, thanks to you. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there, I am impressed." The green light came again, and the scenery changed once again back to Xen, but there were birds flying around. Gordon was baffled. The man continued._

"_That's why I'm here, Mr. Freeman. I have recommended your services to my.....e-e-e-employers, and they have authorized me to offer you a.....job. They agree with me that you have limitless....potential." Again, the green light came, and they were now on a Black Mesa Transit car, which seemed to be traveling through space at an extreme speed. The scenery reminded Gordon of the TV show Star Trek, which he used to watch occasionally. Once again, the man continued as if nothing had happened._

"_You have proved yourself a decisive man, so I don't expect you'll have any trouble deciding what to do. If your interested, just step into the portal and I will take that as a yes. Otherwise, well....I can offer you a battle that you have no chance of winning. Rather an anti-climax to after what you have just suvirved." Suddenly, the door opened showing a a green portal. _

"_Time to chose." Gordon look at the portal. He was seriously considering his offer. It was basically an offer of life or death. But to chose life would also make him a pawn on a very big chessboard. He wanted to life, sure, but he did not want to be used. But, he had no choice. He walked into the green light. Suddenly, darkness engulfed him. The last words he heard were:_

"_Wisely done Mr. Freeman, I'll see you up ahead."_

_"How long has it been?"_ Gordon wondered._ "Days? Months? Years? Decades? No, that last one is pushing it Freeman."_ He told himself. If he had been like this on Earth, he would be shipped off to the nearest nuthouse by men in white coats. _"But I wear a white coat..." _Gordon thought but then quickly changed the subject. During all this time, his only company was his own mind and imagination. He imagined what Earth was like right now. _"Maybe everything is just peachy"_ he thought. When he left, it was 2006. He wondered what year it was now. How far had humanity advanced in his absence? But there was something at the back of mind bugging him. "What if the government's attempt to cover up the Black Mesa Incident failed and the situation only worsened. What did that man say? The border world was under "their" control. "Who is they?" Gordon's mind was spinning. _"No, there is no chance of that, I closed the portal between Xen and Earth."_ But there was no getting rid of the feeling that something was iffy. _"Where the hell did that bastard go? He said that he would 'see me up ahead' but where is he?"_ Due to the fact that Gordon had not eaten or drunk anything since the incident he came to the conclusion that he was put into stasis. Cryogenic stasis was one of the experiments that was underway at the Black Mesa Compound. They wanted to find out if it was possible to freeze the human body in a pod so that they can live for a considerable length of time. The experiment was not finished before the Resonance Cascade. Then suddenly, he heard a loud booming voice.

"Rise and shine Mr. Freeman rise and shine." Once again, Gordon came face to face the that....man. Again he went to speak, but the same force was preventing him, as before.

"Not that I wish to imply that you were sleeping on the job. No-one is more deserving of a rest and all of the effort in the world would have gone to waste, until.....well, lets just say that your hour has.....come again. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up Mr. Freeman. Wake up and......smell the ashes." The man faded from view, and a light began to approach him.

"_It's time"_ Gordon thought. When the light engulfed him completely, be began to see figures and surfaces and his body felt like it was coming back to life. For the first time in twenty years, Gordon Freeman laid his eyes on Earth, a place that he once called home. He wondered again if anything had changed.

"_Well, I will soon find out_" he thought.


	2. Rude Awakenings: Part 2

**A/N: I found the G-man hard to write, so forgive me if he does seem different here than in-game**

**Rude Awakenings: Pt 2**

USMC Corporal Adrian Sheppard was floating in emptiness for what felt like an eternity. He obviously wasn't conscious but his mind was extremely active. Sometimes he pictured himself in a 8x4 prison cell which only had a toilet and a bed contain within it. Other times he pictured himself in a windowless and door-less room where he found himself continually punching and kicking at a wall in frustration. "WHY THE FUCK AM I HERE?! WHAT THE FUCK DID I EVER DO TO YOU ASSHOLE?!?! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!?!" He would scream this every now and again, but no reply ever came. There was one thing he did know. He knew that the Corps never trained him for a experience like this. SERE never taught him this sort of psychological beating.

The 22 year old Corporal was on of the USMC's rising stars. He was a 6"0 powerplant. He had some of the best training the world could offer including the Scout Sniper school, the Force Reconnaissance course and SAS training acquired through a six month exchange program. After his mandatory six month posting with the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit (HECU), he would be permanently posted to Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC), but that was never to be. During the third month of his deployment, the Black Mesa Incident occurred. His V-22 was shot down before he could receive his mission briefing at the LZ. He was rescued by a scientist who believed the Marines was his saviors. He then went on his own way to find a way to get out of the facility. Alone and without any orders, he survived for 10 hours. After which, he was 'captured' and he could remember it well, since it was his last conscious living memory.

_Suddenly, a green light enguled him and the next thing he knew, he was sitting in the jump seat of a V-22. He felt a sudden wave of relief, but it faded as quickly as it came as he noticed that it was not a fellow Marine standing before him, it was a oldish looking man wearing a blue suit and caring a briefcase. Sheppard reconsigned this man from basecap, he witnessed him speaking with his CO. He took a glance out the door and he noticed that it looked like they were flying over New Mexico. He wanted to speak, but an unknown force was preventing him from doing so. _

"_Soo, Corporal Shepparddd, we meet at last. Please do not think I have been avoiding you, a great deal of matters require my attention these....troubled times. I do hope you understand. And now I require a further indulgence on your part. I can not close my report until every loose end has been....tied up. The biggest embarrassment has been the Black Mesa Facility, but I think that has taken care of its self."_

_Suddenly, a large white flash of light appeared, signifying that the Black Mesa Facility had been obliterated by a thermonuclear warhead. Sheppard suddenly felt a twinge of sadness._

"_All of those people....vaporized. What, I thought hat I had disarmed it...unless..." Sheppard came to a conlusion and his sadness transformed into anger. _

"_Bastard" He tried to get up from he seat, but that same force was keeping him down. The man noticed this, but chose to ignore it. _

"_Quite so." he said. Suddenly, the green light returned and the entire aircraft was teleported. Sheppard looked out the door, he was at a loss for words. He was in space. He was on a Alien planet. The man just continued as if nothing had happened._

"_But there is still the lingering matter of witnesses. I admit that I have a fascination in those who adapt and survive against all odds, they rather remind me of myself. If for no other reason, I have argued to preserve you for a time."_

_Once again, the light returned and the scenery changed again, he Osprey now seem to be traveling faster than the speed of light. Once again, the man continued as if nothing had happened. _

"_While I believe that a civil servant like yourself understands the importance of...d-d-d-discretion, my employers are not so trusting and rather continually subject you to the irresistible human temptation of 'telling all', we have decided to convey you in a place where you can do no possible harm, and where no harm can come to you. I sure you can imagine there are worse alternatives." _

_When he finished, a green light erupted a the back of Sheppard's eye, the man straightened his tie and walked towards it and disappearing leaving Sheppard in the Osprey before his vision suddenly __faded to black._

Little did the young Marine know, that was twenty years ago. Many times he wondered what the state of Earth was. He came to the conclusion that the bomb obliterated everything and the government successfully covered it up, like they do. But there was something bugging him at the back of his head. He wondered if there was a chance that the nuclear explosion made the whole thing a whole load worse. But he dismissed it since it was crazy. He wondered if he would ever see Earth again, and his home state of California. But, as much he would love to, he regarded it as unlikely. Like Freeman, he wondered how long he had been in 'captivity'. It felt like months to him and thus he came to the conclusion that he was there for two months. Suddenly, he heard...him. He could recognize that voice anywhere.

"So, Corporal Sheppardddd, how are you enjoying your...rest?" Sheppard wanted to punch the guy to death, but a similar force paralyzed him.

"Ah, I see you still have your attitude." He observed, he then continued "My employers and I have decided that it is now your time . You have a great many matters that require your...attention, but I warn you, you will not like what you will see." As quickly as he came, he vanished. However, Sheppard noticed that there was a light coming fast towards him, as it got closer, he could make out blurry colours.

"_So, I am going back."_ He thought, overjoyed, but he was curious as to what the man meant when he said 'You will not like what you will see." As the light fully engulfed him, he felt his entire body come to life.

"_I guess that I will find out soon enough"_


	3. Sudden Discovery

**If anyone was waiting for this that hasn't reviewed/alerted, here is the next chapter**. **This is basically Point Insertion with a few tiny (and I mean tiny) additions/subtractions, including a reference to the next chapter that was sneaked in. The long wait was (and will be) due to the massive back log of coursework and homework that I have. I just write on my iPod and type it up on my computer, if my iPod had Word sync, it would really help. **

**Disclaimer, I don't own Half Life, imagine the carnage that would ensue if I did.......................  
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**Do I even need a disclaimer anyway? Anyway, on with the chapter......**

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Sudden Discovery

Once Gordon had regained his vision and other basic senses, he took in his surroundings. He didn't need a MIT Ph.d to figure out that he was on a train. It looked pretty old with a dirty interior and worn out red leather seats. There were bullet holes in the windows, which alarmed Gordon. He noticed two men in from of him in the train car. One was holding a suitcase in one hand while holding the handrail in the other. While there was another guy sitting down near the other end of the car with his suitcase in his lap. While he was looking at both men, he was once again alarmed as he noticed the similarities between the two men.

They were wearing the exact same blue jumpsuit.

At that, Gordon subconsciously checked himself. He was horrified to find that he was no longer wearing his HEV suit, which he was wearing when he was detained; he too was wearing the exact same blue jump suit as the two men in the train car. He was so used to wearing the HEV suit in Black Mesa that he now felt somewhat naked and exposed without it. Just by looking at the clothing and the state of the train, Gordon knew that there was something wrong.

Very wrong

He decided to walk forward, which was a battle in itself since during the time in which he was in stasis; his limbs had become extremely stiff. The man closest to him, the one hold the handrail looked in Gordon's direction and gave him a confused look.

"I didn't see you get on" he stated. Not long after the man said that, the train felt life it was starting to come at a half at what looked like your normal run of the mill train station.

"Well, end of the line" the man in front of Gordon said, and as the automatic doors opened, he walked out, along with the second man who was in the car. Just as Gordon disembarked, he felt like something out of his worst nightmares had come true. As he got off, a small flying machine with one big red mechanical eye in the middle glided towards him and took a picture of him, momentarily blinding him. The….thing made a beeping noise and flew away.

Suddenly, a very familiar voice boomed throughout the platform. It was Dr Wallace Breen, who was the Administrator of the Black Mesa Facility when the Resonance Cascade occurred. Gordon just assumed that he was killed either at the hands of the aliens or the Marines that stormed the facility.

Obviously not.

His face appeared on a massive screen mounted on the wall in front of Gordon.

"Welcome! Welcome to City 17. You have chosen, or been chosen to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centres….." Gordon really did not like the sound of that. He continued down the platform and then Breen voice stated to fade away as he watched events unfold right in front of him.

A man who was carrying all of his remaining possessions on a large trolley was stopped by what looked like a police officer, but this officer looked somewhat different to your regular officer. He was wearing an all black suit with back boots and was covered in body armour. The most distinctive feature was the massive white gas mask which completely covered his face.

"Hey, Move it." He shouted over at the man with the trolley. His voice didn't sound human at all, it sounded more mechanical and artificial.

"But this stuff, its all I have left" the man tried to reason. In the form of a response, the cop just punched the man and pushed him into his pile of suitcases.

"Move along!" he shouted

"Fine I'm moving jeez" the man said as he got up and walked towards the revolving barrier. Gordon was shocked, he just witnessed and act of random police brutality, something that was not acceptable the last time he was on Earth.

Gordon followed the man towards the revolving barrier. There was a woman behind the adjacent fence; she looked like she was waiting for someone. "Were you the only ones on that train?" she shouted to no one in particular as the disembarking passengers made their way towards the barrier. Gordon went to ask the woman what was wrong, but as he tried to speak, his vocal cords felt like the suddenly ignited. He knew he must've been in stasis for a considerable period of time. Before, at Black Mesa, although he did find it hard to speak, he did when it was necessary. But he had never felt this sort of pain before. The woman noticed this, so she decided that he wanted to know more.

"Overwatch stopped our train in the woods and took my husband for questioning. They said that they would be on the next train. I'm not sure when that was, but they are being nice though, letting me wait for him." The woman frowned and stared towards the ground in sadness. Gordon, still unable to muster any strength from his vocal cords, just put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and a reassuring nod to show that he understood.

As Gordon continued walking, he came across what looked like a large waiting area of some sort. There were benches with the occasional vending machine or two. When he seen the logo "Dr. Breen's Private Reserve", he chuckled, or at least he tried to. Other people in the area just looked at him. Felling uncomfortable with the unnecessary attention, Gordon again walked on, but was immediately stopped by a man who was sitting at a bench. He looked like a wreck, a person who you would find in the streets who had just escaped from the local psychiatric hospital.

"_Then again, every human I have seen looks like that" _Gordon thought.

"Don't drink the water, t-t-they punt something in it to make you f-f-f-forget. I don't even remember how I got here." Gordon just nodded to show that he understood. He couldn't go for another few seconds before bumping into another man. Gordon overheard him mumbling something about "people getting on but never getting off and people leaving but never returning". Even for a theoretical physicist, Gordon found it hard to understand him. So he again continued around a corner and finding what looked like a security checkpoint that you would expect to find in an airport, except, there were no x-ray machines or random bag searches. There was a man sitting nearby who looked mortified. There were two men next to the char fence making quiet remarks about Breen when his automated Welcome speech was played again. Gordon took another look at the checkpoint in front of him behind the fence.

The checkpoint was manned by three "cops". There was one standing in the middle of the square opening while there were two others guarding two detours. One was straight ahead while the other one led to another chain link fence. A man and a woman walked through. The man was told to go to the left while the woman was allowed to go straight ahead. When Gordon got to the checkpoint, he noticed the left exit led to another train platform and a sign which said "Nova Proskpect" written beside it. The man who had entered the checkpoint only a few second ahead of Gordon was taken to a second door with "Security" written beside it. As Gordon attempted to walk in the same direction as the woman before him, he was stopped by the cop in the center of the room, who just pointed a glowing stick to the left. As Gordon walked through the second barrier, he noticed that there was a strange looking device with a green light that sat on the roof which looked like a CCTV camera. As Gordon walked past the second door, an alarm sounded, and cops surrounded Gordon, blocking both the door back to the checkpoint and the train platform.

The security door to the right opened, revealing another cop.

"You citizen, come with me" he said, pointed at Gordon. Gordon noticed something…different about this cop. His voice was different, it was deeper than the other cops he had heard talking. It was artificial, not doubt about it, but it sounded artificially artificial. The cop led Gordon down a long, narrow hallway. There were two doors, which resembled what a prison cell door looked like. As he walked past the first door, he noticed that the slit that allowed the captor to look into the cell was open; he decided to take a look.

In the middle of the room was a simple leather chair. In it was the man that he had seen at the checkpoint only minutes before. He looked horrified and frustrated as he tried to explain himself.

"I have no idea what this is about; I got a standard relocation pass just like everybody else"

At that, Gordon saw the eyes –or more so the eye covers- of a cop who was conducting the 'questioning', looking straight at him. He just closed the sit, not even bothering to even acknowledge Gordon. As Gordon continued down the hallway, he heard the screams and cries of the man who he had just seen in the cell.

When Gordon arrived at the second, and last, door, the cop opened it for him.

"Get in" he said harshly, shoving Gordon into the room. Gordon instantly became uncomfortable when he saw sight in front of him. Another red leather chair sat in the same position as the last room.

Around it lay pools of blood.

There was another cop standing by the doorway.

"Need any help with this one?" he asked as the other cop entered behind Gordon.

"Nah, I'm good" he replied. The other cop nodded and walked outside. The first cop turned towards a massive computer like machine which took up the majority of the wall. On both sides of it, were roof mounted security cameras. Gordon, once again, opened his mouth to speak, but was still unable to do so due to the immense pain that he was feeling in his throat. _"It will come back with time" _Gordon concluded. He looked around and noticed a door to his left, beside the cameras.

"I'm gonna need some privacy for this" the cop smirked as he typed commands into the console. Suddenly, the roof mounted camera disengaged and retracted into the roof. Gordon could feel himself flinch at the though about what would come within the next few seconds.

What did happen took him completely by surprise.

The cop turned around.

"Now…" he started as he took off his mask, "…about that bear I owed ya, It's me Gordon, Barney from Black Mesa." Gordon was shocked; he thought that Barney was killed in Black Mesa. He felt extremely happy that his old friend was alive and well. He did look a lot older though.

"How have ya been buddy?" Barney asked, Gordon just pointed to his throat as a response. Barney understood

"Sill got the voice problem huh?" Barney questioned, Gordon just nodded.

"Hey, sorry for the scare, I had to put on a show for the cameras." Barney said as he turned to the console and he started typing in more commands into it. "I have been working undercover in Civil protection, I can't take took long or they'll get suspicious since I am way behind on my beating quota." Once he finished, a video feed appeared on the main screen. Gordon was, yet again, pleasantly surprised when he heard who was on the other end.

"Yes Barney, what is it, I am in the middle of a critical test." It was the unmistakeable voice of Doctor Isaac Kleiner , Gordon's immediate superior at black Mesa while also being his mentor and professor during his studies at MIT. He came up on the screen a few seconds later. He too looked a lot older than the last time Gordon saw him.

"Sorry Doc, but look who's here.." barney said looking at Gordon. Kleiner squinted, but he then immediately recognized Gordon.

"Great Scott, Gordon Freeman! I would have expected more warning." Kleiner said with a big grin on his face.

"Yeah, you and me both Doc, he was about to board the express to Nova Prospeckt " barney said, Gordon could tell from the sound of his voice that there was something bad about that place just by the tone of Barney's voice.

"Well Barney, what do you intend?" Kleiner asked

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking"

"Alyx is around here…somewhere. She just returned from the scrap yard with the final component for the device. She would have an idea of how to get him here." Kleiner said.

"As long as he stays away from checkpoint, which should be okay. Look, Doc, we gotta go, we're taking enough chances as it is." Barney said, trying to rush and end the conversation.

"Very well, and Gordon…Good to see you!" Kleiner finished with a smile, and cut the feed before Gordon could reply.

"Ok Gordon" Barney started as he turned towards him "You've gotta make your own way towards Doctor Kleiner's lab….." Suddenly, a loud banging noise was heard at the door.

"Aw man, that's what I was afraid of." Barney said as he started to jog towards the second door. "get in here Gordon, before you blow my cover. Pile up some stuff and keep going until you get to the plaza. I'll meet up with you later." At that, barney closed the door and Gordon was on his own, again. Looking on the bright side, he used the time to digest all the information that he had just heard. Gordon climbed up a ladder, picked up a wooden box, and jumped out a window. He landed on another box, which cushioned his plunge. He used the information that was gathered to try and determine how long he had been in stasis.

"_Both Barney and Dr. Kleiner look a lot older, maybe a good 15-20 years older. They also talked about a woman named Alyx....." _

Gordon couldn't help but think that he had heard that name before, but he couldn't quite place it. The next thing Gordon knew, he was standing in an area that would have once been the box office. On the wall was a mechanical device where people were lining up in front of. It dispensed an orange packet which looked like a military MRE. There was another wall mounted monitor with Dr Breen on it. Instead of the Welcome message, Breen was talking about general issues which the public has asked him about, one oven included human reproduction and something about a suppression field which prevented the human race from breeding. This only made Gordon more confused and worried.

Gordon walked out of the main entrance to the station, taking his first breath of fresh air after god knows how long. Immediately, he wanted to throw it up again since his stomach was empty. Gordon was greeted with a massive, obviously alien, structure. The summit was obscured by clouds. The massive black building just stood out from the rest of the regular human structures, which looked Eastern European. Gordon walked down the steps and looked for a way to go. All but one route was blocked by what looked like a force field. He decided to walk down the only route open to him.

As he walked down the street, he was greeted by a checkpoint, which was basically consisted of a large armoured vehicle blocking the road. There was a group of cops standing guard while a civilian had his hands up against the wall as another cop searched him. Suddenly, the ground below Gordon's feet began to rumble.

Behind the APC, in the next street, which ran perpendicular to the current street, appeared a massive three legged creature was a massive gun under its head. Just watching it made the hairs on Gordon's back stand straight up. Looking for a detour, Gordon found a ladder leading up to walkway, which dropped down behind a fence blocking the alley.

Eventually, Gordon ended up at a series of apartment blocks. There were two men observing the entrance of one block, where two cops stood guard. They were grumbling about how the cops always found a reason to close off an entire apartment block for no apparent reason. There was an unguarded block entrance so Gordon decided to venture inside. He ascended up a flight of stairs to the first floor, in the hallway; a team of cops was standing outside the door. One banged on the door with his fist but to no avail, so he kicked down the door and ran in, closely followed by his colleagues. Gordon noticed another opening where a person was peeking out of the doorway. Gordon walked cautiously along the hallway until he arrived at another flight of stairs. Suddenly, an alarm was heard and a loud female voice boomed over it.

"Attention residents, Anticitizen detected in your block. Cooperation with Civil Protection teams necessary." Gordon heard the voices of cops' one floor below him, and was ascending towards him. Gordon started to run as fast as he could, which was more like a jog since his legs were still stiff from the stasis. Eventually, he arrived at a door which lead to the roof, which was opened by another man. The man elected himself to say behind and hold off the cops so that Gordon could get out. As Gordon made his escape, he could hear the cops speaking and the screams and cries of the ordinary citizens who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Gordon climbed the staircase which lead him to the roof of the apartment block. He jumped down to the adjacent roof top but then instantly dived when he heard the sound of a rotor of a helicopter. He looked up find that, although it did have a massive tail rotor, it was not a helicopter. It looked like a organic creature as opposed to a piece of human construction. The creature flew over Gordon with out taking action so Gordon continued onward. Then, he heard the all familiar sound of a supersonic crack. He looked back to find cops unloading their pistols at him, however, their aim was terrible and no bullets even came close to hitting Gordon. Gordon jogged along a narrow edge as an APC sped along the street below. He arrived at on open window and crawled through into a dark attic space. The only visible exit was a staircase in the centre of the room. Gordon descended down the stairs and opened the door to reveal a narrow corridor with a door at each end. Gordon took a gamble and turned right. Suddenly, the door opened revealing two cops, batons in hand. Gordon quickly changed direction towards the second door, but it too had cops waiting. They had boxed Gordon in. Both teams charged at Gordon with their batons at the ready.

"_Aw shit…" _was Gordon's last thought as he suddenly felt an immense felling of pain as multiple electric shocks hit his body. It felt like he had been shot by four tasers simultaneously. It was too much; Gordon fell and slowly started to lose consciousness. The last thing he heard was the faint voice of an American accented woman and the sounds of mechanical groans.

**A/N: I noticed that I had misspelled Shephard both in the summary and the last chapter, this has been corrected on the summary. **A**nd also be prepared for a lengthy wait but the next chapter won't be as long as this, so it hopefully won't take as long. It will be centered on Shephard's (and maybe Alyx's) POV**


	4. Contact

**Well, after a few months, here is the next chapter. I said it would be shorter, but it turns out that it is nearly twice the size as the last one. Thanks to ileikturtles for pointing out a few things. No disclaimer this time, it isn't really necessary you know. Anyway, on with the chapter.**

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**Contact**

Shephard slowly started to regain consciousness. His head was throbbing. He noted that he was lying in what looked like a train.

Or at least what was left of a train.

The entire metal structure of the train had rusted down to what looked like almost breaking point. Shephard heard a sharp, unhealthy sounding creek as he tried to shift his weight. He found what looked like bullet holes scattered around the structure, small beams of lights following their trajectory. His hopes of returning to a somewhat peaceful and generally unchanged Earth were shattered then and there. He attempted to sit up, but his limbs prevented it, since they were extremely stiff.

"_What the hell happened?_" Shepherd thought, taking another look around the train car. There was nothing but the disgusting colour of brown and red. After some time, he felt some feeling returning into his arms, he reached for a handrail, but the rusting was so far gone that one he applied weight to it, it snapped.

"Damn it" he whispered with annoyance. Eventually, some feeling began to come back into his legs and he pulled himself up slowly. He jumped off the car though what once would have been an automatic door. He took the opportunity to take in the landscape.

He was in a massive scrap yard which had everything from pieces of sheet metal to old rusting aircraft frames. All of the material at the bottom of the massive piles that surrounded him was completely brown from rust while the materials at the top had some sort of colour in them other than brown. Some piles look like they were stacked 30 feet or so high. In between these piles were dirt tracks that were less than 10 feet wide.

Out of nowhere, he heard the sound of crashing metal close by. He looked in the general direction, but soon disregarded it and continued scanning the surrounding landscape. If he had some sort of firearm, he would go and investigate, but he didn't. He knew that if he went up there against someone who could very well be armed and has an obvious tactical advantage without an effective weapon was just plain idiocy and would get him killed. Then again, the same could have been said about his attitude to the situation. He kept his ears open for more movement, but didn't take it further than that. When he noticed the Citadel, he whistled tunelessly.

"_Wow" _he though as he started at the massive skyscraper. The building seemed to exert a massive amount of authority on the populace below it, which looked like an Eastern European city. The scrap yard was five miles or so away from the structure, but Shephard could clearly see black dots emerging from its interior. It looked in no way human, which ignited some of Shephard's worst fears at the back of his mind. Suddenly, he heard a helicopter rotor in the distance. Then, his head started pounding once again. It felt like someone had hit him with a sledge hammer. A flashback hit him.

"_Baseplate, this is Goose 7, we are approaching the LZ, requesting mission brief. How copy? Over". Shephard heard his CO shout through the headset over the immense sound of the two rotors of their V-22 Osprey. From his position in the jump seat, Shephard could see the canyons of New Mexico go by as they flew in a two aircraft formation with another Osprey, which contained Goose 3. The temperature was well over a hundred degrees, but that combined with the cramped space in the Osprey cargo compartment, 80 pounds of ammunition, equipment and his PCV made the heat next to unbearable. If Shephard didn't get out of the Osprey soon, he felt like he would be swimming in his own body fluids. His fellow Marines were exchanging theories about the forthcoming assignment, which turned into jokes about their mothers and then turned into a heated argument On the other hand, Shephard was silent as he stared out of the door, determined not to lose his focus, cradling his M4A1 Carbine assault rifle while his M40A3 sniper rifle was in an overhead compartment. This would be his first combat mission after years of training from the best of the best......if it wasn't another exercise. He was trying not to listen to the Marines that were yapping in front of him, but out of nowhere, Corporal Jackson tried to bring him into the argument._

"_Hey Shephard, I think Tower's got the hots for ya" he sniggered, nudging the black man beside him. Shephard was about to respond when their CO cut in._

"_Tower, Jackson, shut the fuck up. Stay frosty." The CO shouted over to the two men who were opposite Shephard. He then put his finger on his ear, where his earpiece was, and started to nod._

"_Solid Copy Baseplate. We are Oscar Mike, out. Alright Marines, listen up, Our mission is to..." Shephard a heard a faint whoosh in the distance, which cut his CO off in mid sentence. He just noticed a flying object which was shaped like a ray do a fly by through the formation._

"_What the…?" Shephard though, but not a few seconds later, he watched in horror as the same craft returned and hovered over Three's Osprey. A bright orange light emerged from the bottom and a large explosion vaporized the Osprey._

"_My god…" Shephard whispered. His CO then to screamed into his radio to command._

"_Baseplate, Baseplate, we have an Osprey down, I repeat, Goose 3 is down. Abort the mission, I say again, ABORT!" _

When Shephard snapped back into reality, he noticed what he was wearing. No longer was he wearing his Power Combat Vest, his Urban MARPAT BDUs and the rest of his weapons and his equipment. He was now wearing a simple blue jacket and blue trousers, which were stained from when he was inside the train car for twenty minutes. Just by wearing them, he felt like he was being held in a prison. The one thing which gave him some comfort was a cool feeling around his neck, which told him that he was still wearing his dog tags.

Suddenly, he heard another creaking sound, but this one was even louder than the previous one. Shephard turned back to see the train car that he just jumped off collapse into a heap of metal and dust. The dust irritated his eyes and made him cough. He used one of his hands in a useless attempt to make the dust go away. In the distance, he heard the sound of someone speaking about taking a look to see what happened. Shephard spun around quickly to assess his options, but he only found one. There was an opening in one of the piles of metal which looked like it could quickly conceal his position. However, he made the stupid mistake in forgetting to take into account that he was wearing blue clothes,

Shephard quickly leaped into the gap and awaited further arrivals. About a minute later, they came. A group of three men came down a path with pistols at the ready. Shephard noted that they looked like cops you would find on any street, but moved as if they were a street gang from somewhere like Los Angeles, which was pretty weird and contradictory in Shephard's opinion. Except, most cops or gangs were not armed with .45 USP Match pistols, which were pretty expensive. They wore white gas masks, black , white and navy overalls and body armour. Just then, Shephard remembered what he was wearing.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid….." He closed his eyes and silently hoped that he would remain undetected, but that wasn't going to happen. As two men holstered their weapons and examined the wreckage, the third man seemed to be keeping watch. Then the guard noticed the bluish colour in one of the piles, he brought his pistol up to shoulder height and fired a warning shot in Shephard's general direction.

"You! Hiding in there, get out!" he shouted, Shephard noted that his voice sounded garbled and it was like he was speaking into a scrambled cell phone. His companions turned around and readied their weapons.

"_Aw fuck"_ Shephard thought. He navigated his way through back out of the opening and on to the dirt path., where the three cops were waiting. To his immense surprise, and amusement, the two cops that were inspecting the wreck put their weapons back in their holsters and took out some strange, baton looking thing which seemed to emit electricity at the top. What ever it was, it wasn't a gun.

"_Stupid bastards" _Shephard thought. The first cops walked towards the Marine, who simply had his hands by his side, showing no submission to them whatsoever.

"Get on the ground, hands behind your head and interlock your fingers" he shouted. Shephard just stood there. In an attempt to scare him, the cop cocked his pistol and aimed it at Shephard's face, but it didn't work. Shephard just kept his cool and didn't so much as flinch, which came as a surprise to the cop.

"Hey! Get your ass on the ground" he shouted again.

"What makes you think that I will follow any orders from cocksuckers like you?" Shephard asked

"What did you just say?" the cop whispered in a dark tone Shephard stepped forward to emphasize his point

"I said, what makes you think that I'll follow orders from the likes of you?" Shephard shouted, taking a few more steps towards the cop.

"You fucking rat, I will shove those words down your throat!" the cop shouted as he lifted his arm to club Shephard with the grip of the pistol.

"_Oh no you don't" _Shephard though as he noticed the cop's body language. He felt the amount of adrenaline flowing in his body increase. His feeling of numbness wore off as he felt himself going into a natural high. He took his left hand in the lead cop's right hands and used his free hand to land a punch into his kidneys. He twisted his left hand, applying extra pressure on the cop's wrist. The result of that was the cop's wrist snapped like a biscuit. Shephard took the weapon out of his useless hand, clubbed his face with the grip to knock him out and spun him around to use as a human shield. Thanks to his extensive Marine training, this was executed quicker than the other two men were able to respond, so by the time they could aim their weapons at Shephard, the first cop was blocking their shot. They did the worst thing they could have possibly done. They hesitated. Shephard drew his weapon over the cop's shoulder, and before they knew it, both cops had two slugs in their chests. The fact that Shephard was less than five feet away meant that their body armour couldn't stop the .45 ACP rounds. The rounds were hollow points, which meant that on impact, they shredded inside the body. They were like mini pieces of shrapnel. They tore the insides of their bodies into pieces.

Shephard threw his weapon the ground, took both of his and put them on the last cop's chin. Once again he twisted and a loud crack was heard, signifying that he had broken the cop's neck, effectively cutting off his central nervous system. He died instantly. After that, all he could hear was what sounded like flat lined heart monitors. Shephard exhaled loudly as the natural high wore off. He froze as he heard footsteps behind him; he turned to find another cop behind him with his weapon drawn. Suddenly, he heard two gun shots coming from an unknown shooter to his right. He saw the cop fall with a big red patch in his head, but he then watched as his sidearm discharged and he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. He ignored the pain and jumped for him weapon on the ground. When he got a hold on his weapon, he rolled over only to be greeted by another barrel.

* * *

Alyx was tired. She had spent most of her day sifting through old trash and scrap metal looking for the specific part that would go with Dr Kleiner's teleportation device. The chances of her actually finding something compatible were extremely slim. She though she heard something creaking in the distance, but didn't dwell on it. She walked along a dirt path towards one of the biggest piles of junk in the entire yard, which looked to have a good portion of good quality metal on the top. If she was going to find anything useful, it was there. As she advanced towards the summit of the pile, she scanned for the device she was looking for, which se eventually found. She thanked God that the Combine was stupid enough to dump useless spare parts for their teleport in a scrap yard. She took her backpack off her pack and put her find inside. Ass she put her bag back. He started to feel the old car bonnet she was standing on start to give way under her feet, she instantly jumped towards some leverage. The old car collapsed, creating a loud sound of crashing metal. She kept her head down as he slowly advanced up the pile again to see if the CPs guarding the facility were alerted. As she neared the summit, she noticed a lone figure looking around on the surface; she instinctively rested her hand on her pistol in her waist holster, but stood down after she confirmed that it was a civilian.

The man was around six feet tall and was extremely well built. He looked too well built for someone of the time period. He looked younger then Alyx by a few years, which added to the mystery. He had short, black hair, but the hair the hair above his ears and most of the back of his head was almost completely shaved off. She recognized that haircut, but she couldn't quite place it. He was looking in Alyx's direction, obviously alerted to by the collapse earlier. After a few seconds, he turned away and started to look around him. He took a long look at the Citadel; it was almost as if he had never seen one before, which Alyx though was odd. She heard a Hunter chopper in the distance, but the man suddenly seemed like he was about to faint. He leaned against an old shipping container clutching his head in pain. After another few seconds, he looked seemingly fine. He then looked down at his citizen's outfit as if he didn't even notice he was wearing it. This guy was starting to freak Alyx out now, but as she prepared to move down and talk to him, she heard a very loud creaking sound. She watched as a train car collapsed into a heap of dust and metal. She heard CP radio chatter nearby, obviously talking about the collapse. _"Unless I do something, this guy is screwed" _she thought.

She watched on as the man started to look around in desperation, because he seemed to have heard the radio chatter too. He then climbed into a pile of scrap metal. Around a minute later, three CP units walked cautiously down the main dirt road with their pistols drawn. Alyx drew her own weapon. As two of the three men examined the wreck, one stood guard. He must have spotted the man, because he lifted his pistol and fired in his general direction, ordering him to come out, which the man did. Instead of instantly begging for mercy, like what most civilians would do at this stage, the man just stood there, silent, showing no submission to the CPs. The two men who were examining the wreckage put away their weapons, took out their stun batons and let the lead cop do the talking. The unit ordered him to get on the ground, but the man didn't comply, he just stood there. The CP tried to scare him by cocking his weapon and aiming it at his face, but it didn't do much. The CP repeated his order, and the man gave him a pretty insulting reply. It was like this guy didn't even know how much damage a CP could do. She could see that the CP was surprised, and angered, and someone had the guts to stand up to them. The man just stepped forward and repeated himself, which the cop took as the ultimate act of aggression, and took action.

She watched as the cop lifted his pistol to club him, but the man reacted. He took the CP's wrist in his left hand, used his right hand to land a punch to his abdomen and aggressively twisted his wrist. She heard the CP's yelp as his wrist was broken. The man took his pistol out of his hand and clubbed him with the grip in the face. He then spun him around and used as a human shield. By the time they other two cops had readied their pistols, they didn't have a shot on the man. The man took his right hand to bring the pistol up and 'double tapped' both cops in the chest. Finally, the man dropped his weapon and snapped the last CP's neck. Alyx was impressed at how accurate the man's moves were executed in such a short time frame. She knew that this wasn't just some average citizen; he was something more than that.

As she slowly started to descend, she heard more footsteps. She looked up to find another CP approaching from behind the man. He noticed it to, but he was unarmed since his weapon was still on the ground. She aimed her pistol and fired two shots into the CP's skull. However, the CP's weapon still fired. The man recoiled in pain, but jumped for his weapon. Alyx sped up her descent. A few seconds later, she reached the dirt track; she readied her weapon as a precaution. She walked slowly towards the man, who was lying face down on the ground, but he rolled over with his pistol in his hand, aimed at Alyx. Once he saw that it wasn't a CP, he lowered his weapon slowly. As he did this, so did she. Alyx noticed a weird looking chain around his neck. The man groaned as he sat up against an old car.

"Are you ok?" Alyx asked the man

"Yeah, I guess" Shephard replied, looking at his wound. He took off his blue jacket, which had plain white t-shirt under it. It allowed him to get a better look at the wound; he concluded that it was nothing more than a deep cut. A lucky escape.

"You sure?" Alyx asked, the wound looked pretty nasty to her.

"Trust me, it's not as bad as it looks" Shephard assured her. He took the jacket and ripped it into large patches. He used one patch to clean up the excess blood as best he could and tied another one around the wound to help stop the bleeding. Alyx was about to ask him his name and where he came from, but a loud alarm was heard across the entire complex. They then heard the sinister voice of the Overwatch dispatcher.

"Attention Civil Protection teams, gun fires reported in the Scrap Yards, Four Civil protection fatalities, sweep area for intruders. Use of deadly force……authorized." The female voice said over the radios. Alyx started to hurry Shephard up.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but after watching that display, I am willing to trust you. Any minute now, more CPs will come running, and they will want blood. I know a route out of here, but you have to keep up" Alyx stated as she turned around and started to run. Shephard nodded and followed her. He found it to keep up with her due to the extremely stiff limbs, which came back after his adrenaline rush, but his managed. After weaving in and out through different areas to evade the numerous patrols, they reached an old, wire link fence with a hole in it. On the other side was a dark, secluded alleyway. They both crawled through to the other side and Alyx walked towards what looked like an old manhole cover.

"Down here are the old tunnels. They lead directly to my friend's lab, which is about a mile or so away. There you can get medical supplies for your arm. Here, you'll need this" Alyx explained, giving Shephard a flashlight and started to descent down the ladder, Shephard slowly followed her down.

The tunnels were dark, very dark. It almost made Shephard think back to his time spent crawling through ventilation shafts in Black Mesa.

"_At least I had NVGs back then. I would give anything to have NVGs right now"_ Shephard thought_, "At least she has working flashlights."_

"So..." Alyx started as they were walking down the tunnel, "Who are you exactly? How the hell did you end up in the scrap yard?" Shephard hesitated on the answer. As he was about to explain that he was a Marine who was captured by a mysterious man dressed in a suit and that he was teleported here from somewhere other then this Earth, he felt a weird force, similar to the force that he felt in the presence of….him, which stopped him.

"I'm Corporal Adrain Shephard, and to be honest, I don't know, I don't remember."

"_Corporal? That must mean...wait, no, that's impossible. He is younger than me for crying out loud, there is no way in hell…" _Alyx thought, she couldn't believe him. When Shephard noticed her dumbfounded expression, he started to get the feeling that something was wrong.

"You want proof? Here." He said, putting a hand down his shirt to retrieve his dog tags. He lifted them off his neck and handed them to Alyx. She took them and shined her flashlight over them. They only added to her immense confusion.

**SHEPHARD. A **

**O POSITIVE**

**678-45-1527 **

** 03/05/84**

**USMC M**

**CATHOLIC**

His birth date didn't add up to Alyx. According to the tag, he was 42 years old, but he looked, and certainly didn't move like a 42 year old you would find in City 17, if there was any left. He looked and moved as if he was around 20 years younger. A familiar thing on the tag was the acronym "USMC". She knew that she had heard it before, but she could not recall its exact meaning..

"What does USMC mean?" Alyx asked stupidly. Shephard was amazed. Standing before him was, judging by the accent, an American woman who did not know what the USMC was. It reinforced his gut feeling that something was wrong.

"USMC stands for Untied States Marine Corps" he answered. Alyx thought for a few seconds.

"_That explains the haircut and the hand to hand moves" _She thought as she went back to a turbulent childhood. But some other parts just didn't add up. Only one more question would connect the dots.

"What age are you?" she asked

"Can't you read? The tags say that I'm 22" Shephard replied, slightly annoyed. Alyx thought again, but she then paled as she came to a horrifying conclusion. She needed to speak to Dr. Kleiner.

"We need to move" she shouted, putting the tags in a pocket in her leather jacket and broke into a sprint. Now Shephard was confused.

"_Was it something I said?"_ he thought, then he figured out what was wrong "_Aw hell…"_

"Its not 2006 is it?" he asked as he ran after her

"No Adrain, it isn't" she replied. "Oh, and by the way, the name's Alyx"

After 10 minutes of running, they arrived at another ladder. She climbed up the ladder and opened a hatch at the top. Shephard followed her up and ended up in a small room. There was a passage way to the left, a massive green door that looked like it was once used for shipping to the right and there were two vending machines at one end of the room. As Shephard made it up to the top of the ladder, Alyx was standing in front of a vending machine, pressing random buttons in quick succession.

"_What the hell?" _Shephard thought, then the cover of the machine opened to reveal a secret room. _"Nice"_

Alyx ran into Dr Kleiner's lab, which initially seemed empty.

"Dr Kleiner?" she shouted. A large, silo like door at the end of the room opened up to reveal an average sized bald man in his fifties who was wearing thick, nerdy black spectacles and a typical lab coat.

"Ah, hello Alyx, were you able to retrieve that part I was looking for? Kleiner asked

"Yeah, but I found a s-" Alyx started

"Excellent!" Kleiner exclaimed, "I only have one more test that need to be carried out before everything will be ready for the part to be installed and the teleport may finally work as intended!" At that, Shephard walked in, holding his arm, Kleiner immediately noticed him.

"Oh, who is this Alyx?" Kleiner asked

"That what I tried to tell you Doctor, this man survived the Black Mesa Incident 20 years ago." Alyx replied, Kleiner stared at her in amazement.

"Whattttttt?" he asked, staring at her then Shephard "t-t-t-that's impossible, he does not l-l-look much younger then you Alyx" Kleiner stuttered

"I know, I came to the same conclusion, but he gave me these as proof, and its pretty damn good proof." Alyx said as she took the dog tags from her jacket pocket and handed Kleiner the dog tags. Kleiner studied them and his eyes widened in horror.

"You were a M-M-Marine?" he asked, fear started to get evident in his voice.

"Yes I am a Marine Corporal", Shephard corrected, "What's wrong with that?"

"You Marines massacred my fellow scientists because they were living evidence of the Resonance Cascade. You thought that by silencing us, you would be able to cover it up. But now look, look what your actions contributed to. Many of the planets greatest minds were executed as part of a government cover up….." Kleiner said, his voice getting louder. Shephard was confused and started to feel sick

"Hey, whoa, whoa. Let me say something Doctor. I was part of one of the first advance teams to attempt an insertion into Black Mesa, but my Osprey was shot down en route before I could receive any orders or a mission briefing. I went in there blind. Hell, I even owed my life to a scientist because he pulled me away from the wreckage of the Osprey and got me to safety. I never had any orders to cover up evidence, I never witnessed any atrocity. The HECU's mandate was to assist in the evacuation of employees if the situation presented itself, not slaughter them. The scientists I met were pretty damn helpful and resourceful. I know for a fact that I couldn't have survived the incident without their help…" Shephard paused to look around for a trashcan. "Now, if you'll excuse me". He pushed past Alyx and started to throw up in the trashcan. Kleiner's expression softened, he knew he was not the sort of person who would jump to conclusions and he knew that he knew better than that. The man obviously had no knowledge of the atrocities that were committed by his co-workers, and he had no part in them. He noticed the blue patch on his white t-shirt was starting to drip with blood.

"Alyx?" Kleiner asked. Alyx looked up from watching Shephard. "Go and get the Corporal some medical supplies." Alyx nodded and walked past him into the first room "and Corporal?" he asked quietly. A pale looking Shephard looked up. "I am sorry for my outburst" Shephard nodded

"Apology accepted Doctor, and besides, I don't blame you. Roles reversed; I would have reacted the same way." Shephard said, giving him a weak smile. Kleiner nodded.

"Oh, I suppose you will want these back." he told him, handing over his tags. Shepahrd nodded with thanks and handed it over to him.

Kleiner turned towards the next room to conduct the final test. Alyx returned with some bandages, ointment, stitches and morphine, which Shephard gladly accepted. He climbed up to a ledge where a load of old junk was dumped and started to work on his arm. The good news was that since it was only a cut, he didn't need a sling for it. In the next room, he heard Kleiner shouting at someone, presumably over a video feed since Alyx was just across the room from where Shephard was, looking at something in a computer screen. Suddenly, two words from the next room hit him, which made anger flare inside his body.

Gordon Freeman

He was the HEV suit clad scientist who had somehow killed many Marines during the Black Mesa Incident. Shephard only encountered him once.

_Shephard crawled though another endless ventilation shaft which he could barley fit in thanks to the M4A1 and M40 slung over his back. If he had judged his baring correctly, he was inside the Black Mesa Complex, otherwise known as the "Lambda Complex" on maps he had seen. It felt like he had been in Black Mesa for around eight hours, just fighting to survive. He was starting to feel the effects of the extended periods of combat with the other worldly creatures. He was tired and was starting to lose his focus. He got to the end of the duct and punched the cover so he could get out. Once he as out, he holstered his Desert Eagle and took the M4A1 that was slung over his back and shouldered it. Suddenly, he heard the voice of a scientist coming from his left._

"_Hurry Freeman, I can't keep it open for much longer"_

_Shephard pulled the charging handle on his M4 to make sure a bullet was in the chamber. His feelings of wariness evaporated as a fresh supply of adrenaline was flowing in his body. He was finally going to take a stab at taking down Gordon Freeman. As he walked slowly down the corridor, the blast door opened which revealed a man in an orange suit who was running towards a green light. It could only be once person. He centred the iron sights on his back _

"_FREEMAN!" he shouted. Shephard noticed the man look back for no more than a second. He fired a burst, but before the bullet hit their target, freeman disappeared into the green light. _

"_GOD DAMNIT!" Shephard shouted in anger and frustration. He started to run towards the light to pursue his pry, ignoring the hostile aliens that were teleporting above him. But before he got there, the light disintegrated. He slid along the ground to stop and started to open fire on the aliens above him._

Shephard remembered the moment well. A part of him would relish in the opportunity to have another chance, but another part though back to the discussion with Kleiner. In a way, Freeman was just like himself, a man just fighting to survive. Maybe freeman was protecting himself from the marines who were killing the scientists. Those Marines were never marines in Shephard's book, he knew that a Marine should never kill a non-combatant, either as part of an order or by their own free will. It wasn't right. By doing what they did, those marines in Black Mesa shamed the Corps.

One he snapped back into reality for a second time, he noticed that he had subconsciously finished working on his arm. It wasn't immobile and he could move it with next to no pain, thanks to the numbing sensation the morphine provided, he would get used to it. He just finished wrapping the bandage around his arm when he noticed that Alyx was walking out of the next room and towards the door that lead out.

"Hey…..Alyx, where are you going?" Shephard asked the woman.

"Oh, I'm going to find someone, I'll be right back" she replied. Shephard didn't need to be told that that person was Freeman.

"By the way, you never told me what year it was" he shouted as she neared the door. Alyx turned around to face him.

"If were using the same year system as we did back before Black Mesa, it is 2026." Alyx replied. Shephard looked horrified at the revelation, so Alyx just left him so he could think over it.

"_2026?"_ Shephard though _"Damn, that means I spent nearly 20 years floting in the middle of nothing while whatever happened here...happened" _, he then heard a shaking sound coming from below him. He looked down to find what looked like an old dog carrier occasionally rocking to and fro. He jumped down from the ledge he was sitting on and went to take a look. He certainly didn't expect to find what he found. As he bent down to look inside, a headcrab tried to pounce, but was restricted by the cage. Shephard thought he would literally die from a heart attack. He jumped in shock and instinctively fell back to the floor, which in reality allowed the crab to pass over him, but it was useless here since it was in the cage. His hand went to his waist, looking for a sidearm, but it wasn't there. Dr Kleiner heard to commotion, and went to investigate, but laughed to find Shephard on the floor in his particular stance in front of Lamar's cage. Shephard got up and looked at the doctor as if he was crazy.

"Don't worry Corporal, Lamar is harmless. See." He said, bending down in front of the cage and opened it. The headcrab trotted out, it immediately pounced towards the new arrival in its lair, Shephard. In the short time that the crab showed its undercarriage, Shephard noticed the lack of "teeth" around the cavity where the head would go. Nonetheless, he didn't want to take any chances, he wanted to keep his central nervous system to himself. He dodged the first pounce. It turned and tried to pounce again, but it overshot and landed on the ledge above the two men. It got bored of trying to couple with Shephard's head and decided to poke around in some of the old boxes. Shephard glared at Kleiner for allowing it out. Kleiner gave a nervous chuckle.

"Sorry Adrain, Lamar has been "debeaked", meaning that she can not….alter you nad use you as a pawn, I will try and retrieve her later." Kleiner quickly changed the subject and walked into the next room, Shephard followed him.

"Over the last few years, I and Dr Vance, Alyx's father, have been developing a teleport from the old notes we collected from Black Mesa. Eli's lab is located in an old hydroelectric plant and that and the adjacent mountains serve as the base for the resistance. Instead of fighting our way through the old canals to the base, we aim to cut time and save lives using our teleport. It works by….." Kleiner then went into more detail with scientific mumbo jumbo which may as well be gibberish to Shephard. He took a look around the room. A massive device was at the end of the room, most likely the teleport, It looked strangely alien in design and the rings around it gave off a blue glow, it looked like a force field from a sci-fi movie. Around the room were old computers with some monitors hooked up to them. Opposite to the device was another ledge with another computer on it, presumably were Kleiner controlled it. The entire room looked impressive yet out of date at the same time. Apart from the massive device, everything in the room was recycled pre black Mesa tech, and it looked to be showing its age.

"After several….failures, I believe that we have finally perfected it. My aim is to send Alyx, Gordon Freeman and yourself to Eli's lab in one piece." Kleiner finished. Shephard felt a small surge of emotion at the mention of Freeman, but it was small enough to be hidden behind an emotional mask. It must have worked because Kleiner smiled

"Now, I have to go and search for Lamar. I trust I can leave you in here alone?" he asked, Shephard nodded and Kleiner walked out.

After about ten minutes of closer inspection of various pieces of equipment, mainly just to pass the time, he heard Kleiner speaking in the next room. He walked out to find Kleiner speaking to Alyx and another unknown man, but Shephard knew who it was instantly. The man was of average height and was pretty well built, but no where near as well built as Shephard; he had brown hair and a goatee. Behind a pair of thick, nerdy glasses were deep green eyes. He looked older than Shephard, but wasn't much older than Alyx. Shephard kept his cool.

He was finally meeting Gordon Freeman face to face.

* * *

**Ok a couple of things that may need clarification: **

**1. The haircut I am referencing to is the "High and Tight", it is the traditional haircut of the Marine Corps. I felt it would be a fitting look for Shephard, and it is how I believe he should look if an NPC of him is ever made. **

**2. Some Military jargon:**

**"Oscar Mike" - "On Mission" or "On the Move"**

**"Stay Frosty" - basically means "Stay Alert"**

**3. MARPAT (MARine PATtern) is the camo scheme used by Marines today. A urban variant exists, but is not in widespread use. It gives my Marines a more 2006 feel to them as the one that Valve made in 1998, which used a Commercial Urban camo. Later, I plan to give Shephard a Woodland MARPAT uniform complete with his weapons and PCV. If you don't know what MARPAT looks like, just google MARPAT and look at some images.**

**Also, I know the next chapter won't be as long as this (since I feel that I am nearly half way through it on my iPod already), but I can't give any good estimate. Just know that I haven't forgotten about the story if it takes a while. **


	5. Arrivals and Detours

**Finally. I got two chapters done over the period I haven't updated, so I have uploaded two chapter's now. It was hard work getting these off my iPod, it was all fragmented and filled with worthless stuff the iPod's OS put in and I had to put it all back together. If I was typing this out, this wouldn't be ready for weeks. Try to cope with any mistakes that I may have missed.  
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**Anyway, I found that this chapter is an anti-climax to what I had originally planned, I hope you lot find it to be ok, it's just 'Red Letter Day' with a few additions, nothing special.  
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**Arrivals and Detours **

When Gordon slowly came to after the beating, he was immediately greeted by a friendly looking female face. _"And damn pretty one too" _he added

"Doctor Freeman, I presume." She said with a smug smile on her face as she stared down at the scientist. Gordon just smiled back. Another alarm was heard in the distance, diverting her attention away from him. He heard the same voice that he had heard when going through the apartment block

"We'd better hurry" the woman told him, "The Combine can be slow to wake but once they are up, you don't want to get in their way." Gordon was, once again, confused. He had no idea what the "Combine" was, but what ever they were, it didn't sound friendly. The woman moved away towards an old elevator and Gordon slowly got up from the ground. She was the first human, apart from Barney, that he had seen that wasn't dressed in the, what seemed, customary blue overalls. Her clothes looked rough and close to, if not already worn out. She had a brown leather jacket, whose right sleeve was attached to the rest of the jacket using duct tape; denim jeans; a grey hoodie under the jacket with the all familiar Black Mesa logo on it; brown work boots and fingerless rappelling gloves. She had short brown hair, with a few small streaks of red and a hair band. She had green eyes, just like him. Judging by her facial features, Gordon concluded that she was of indirect Asian descent.

The woman turned around after calling the elevator.

"Doctor Kleiner said that you'd be coming this way, but I don't think it ever occurred to him that you didn't have a map." She said, Gordon smirked, _"Typical Kleiner"_ he thought. He opened his mouth to say something, to try and get his vocal cords working again, but to no avail. Close but no cigar. The woman furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"_Damn it"_ Gordon though _"Why do I always have to be a damned mute?" _

The elevator arrived and the pair got in. She pressed the down button and the elevator started its descent. The woman turned towards him.

"I'm Alyx Vance. My father worked with you at Black Mesa? I'm sure you don't remember me though." As she said that, she put her arm around the back of her head in a somewhat anxious gesture, which Gordon found peculiar.

"_That's were I knew Alyx from" _Gordon though, inwardly smiling as he though back to the better days of Black Mesa.

"_Now arriving at Sector C Test Labs and Control Facilities. The time is...8.07AM. Have a safe and productive day." The automated system said in the tram as it arrived at the station. In the tram was Doctors Eli Vance; Issac Kleiner and Gordon Freeman. Freeman was the youngest of the trio, only 27, and it was his first day of employment at the Black Mesa research facility. The trio just returned from Austria, where Freeman was recruited by Vance and Kleiner, who was once of his professors at MIT. They walked out of the tram, on to a metal catwalk and gained access to the reception area after showing their IDs to the guard on duty. Once they got in, Eli started to look around. After a few seconds, he found what, or who, he was looking for._

_Not far from the reception was a woman of Asian descent in her mid thirties. At he side was a little girl, who looked to be about five years old. Gordon didn't need to be told who they were, he was smart enough figure it out himself. The child has short brown hair and she also seemed to most of the features off he mother. You could tell that she was of both African American and Asian descent by the tone of her skin, which was a light natural tan. She also took an Asian look from her mother, but it was small and difficult to notice. When the child saw her father, as pointed out be her mother, her face lit up and a smile appeared on her face._

"_Daddy!" she shouted as he ran towards Eli, who smiled and bent down to greet his daughter in an embrace. Gordon smiled at the sight. This wasn't exactly what he was expected for a first day at work. Eli let his daughter down and introduced Gordon to his wife and daughter._

"_Gordon, this is my wife Azain and my six year old daughter Alyx" Gordon shook hands with Azain and smiled down at the young girl, who just giggled._

_Gordon had been working in the Black Mesa Facility for just over two months and was settling in nicely. Today wasn't a great day however. He had spent most of the day filling in files upon files of paperwork for the delivery of new test subject from the top secret Lambda complex. He started to wonder about what went on over there. He had also heard rumours about a man who had apparently been given a tour of the complex by the Administrator. Some said that he was an investor while others said that he was a government agent. Gordon really couldn't care less. He was just some lab rat. He took out the keys to his dorm when he heard a sound down the hal, where the Vances lived. At the end of the hall stood Eli and Alyx. _

"_Hey Gordon, how was work today?" Eli asked, Gordon frowned._

"_To be honest sir, not great. It was basically paperwork." Eli laughed _

"_Yeah, it's just one of those days, I guess. Oh, and Gordon, stop calling me sir, it is making me feel old." Eli said_

"_Sure S-Eli" Gordon replied. He looked down at the young girl beside Eli. She pointed at his head as if she wanted something. Gordon pointed at his glasses, she nodded. He looked at Eli, who shrugged and smiled. Gordon took his glasses off and handed them to the girl, who put them on and she started to giggle. Gordon and Eli laughed as they saw what Gordon's thick black glasses looked like on her. _

"_I really should think about kids sometime, they seem great." Gordon thought. He bent down to get his glasses back Alyx gave him a sweet some and handed them over._

"_I think she really likes you Gordon." Eli stated with a smile. _

As Gordon came back into reality, the face of the once sweet, fun loving child morphed into a beautiful, yet hardened young woman. You could tell that she must have been through a lot throughout her life, which was his fault. Alyx smirked at the man, the legend, who was gazing at her. "Man of few words, aren't you" she stated, Gordon frowned, but then gave a weak smile. The elevator arrived at its destination. Alyx walked out and turned to the right and Gordon followed her. They came to an immediate dead end. The wall was covered with a yellow poster of Dr Breen. It reminded Gordon of pictures of Nazi German propaganda posters from the 30s and 40s. Alyx turned towards him. "Remember him from Black Mesa, your old administrator. Don't get my dad started on Doctor Breen." Alyx said. She turned around and put her hand under what looked like a power box. Suddenly, the wall slid to the left, revealing a dark hallway. "Through here" she told him as she walked down the hallway.

"It's funny that you showed up on this day in particular." she stated as she walked through into another room. She climbed over a railing, Gordon followed.

"We've been helping people escape the city on foot, but it's a dangerous route, through the old canals. Today, we are on the verge of finding a better way." She stopped at a vending machine

"Here, let me buy you a drink". She put a coin the machine and pressed random buttons, as if it was a sequence to a keypad lock. Finally, she hid the side of the machine a few times and the cover if the machine opened to reveal a hidden room behind it.

"Well I'll be damned" Gordon though with a smirk.

"By the way, Nice to finally meet you" Alyx said with a smile. Gordon smiled back. He walked through the vending the machine and into Doctor Kleiner's lab. Compared to what they hand in Black Mesa, the place was tiny, and all of the equipment was squeezed together. All that could be heard was the mechanical sounds of a graph plotter on the desk to Gordon's right. There were bunch of monitors on the wall with security feeds on them, most likely provided by Barney. At the other end of the room, there was a large cylindrical tube filled with water that gave off a faint orange glow. In the centre of the room stood Dr Kleiner, his old professor and mentor. He hadn't changed much from Black Mesa apart from the aging. It looked like that he kept the same lab coat from Black Mesa. When Gordon walked in, with Alyx behind him, Kleiner seemed to be staring up at a pile of junk which was above everything else. Alyx walked ahead of him.

"Uh oh, is everything alright Dr Kleiner?" Alyx asked, but she already knew the answer

"Oh hello Alyx, Lamar has gotten out of her crate again. She had a....disagreement with..." Kleiner turned around and noticed Gordon standing there with a confused look on his face.

"My goodness, Gordon Freeman, It's really you, isn't it" he said, shaking his hand and giving him a hug.

"I found him wandering around outside. A bit of a troublemaker isn't he?" Alyx stated

"We owe a great deal to Doctor Freeman, even if danger always seems to follow in his wake...." Kleiner stopped as he heard footsteps behind him, he turned around to find Shephard standing by the door, staring at Gordon, who stared back in confusion. The way that the man stared at him suggested that he knew him, but Gordon knew that they had never met before.

"Oh yes Gordon, it seems that you were not the only freak survivor of the Black Mesa Incident. This is Corporal Adrian Shephard......" Kleiner said. A wave of emotion hit Gordon and he suddenly found his voice usable again.

"Corporal?" Gordon asked in a deep, husky voice, "Meaning that...."

"...I was one of the Marines assigned to the Black Mesa Research Facility" Shephard finished. Gordon felt anger flow through his body and he tightened his fists. Shephard noticed this. He shook his head and put his hand up in restraint.

"I have already had this discussion with Kleiner, Freeman. I'll give you the long story short. I never participated in or witnessed the murders of the Black Mesa Science team at the hands of my comrades. I never received my orders since my transport was shot down en route to the complex. I helped the scientists and they help me survive in the facility. If those Marines hadn't murdered those civilians, I would have killed you by now, so don't expect me to be taking revenge. If you want proof, look in the trashcan on your right." Gordon looked, but then immediately recoiled at the sight of the vomit. He looked at Kleiner, who just nodded. Shephard walked towards Gordon.

"Look bro, judging by what I've seen so far, the world isn't exactly in great shape...." Kleiner and Alyx looked at each other in concern after this sentence "....so I'd prefer that we don't dwell on the past." He put his hand out. Gordon looked at it for a second, thinking.

"You're right" he replied, shaking his hand. Suddenly, another voice was heard in the room

"Well is he here?" Barney Calhoun asked, walking into the lab. Shephard furrowed his eyebrows together at the sight of the Civil Protection uniform. Barney smiled at the sight of Gordon, but his attention instantly reverted to the newcomer.

"Who the hell is this?" he asked no one in particular.

"Corporal Adrian Shephard" Shephard replied again.

"Uh-huh" Barney replied "So what, you took the military rank off your dad or something?" he asked

"No" Shephard replied "Hazardous Environmental Combat Unit, United States Marine Corps" Barney immediately reached for his pistol

"Barney! No! He's good, he didn't know about what the Marines did in Black Mesa, leave it." Alyx said. Barney looked at Shephard, and he could tell that he was telling the truth.

"Sorry" he told Shephard

"No problem, I feel I am going to get this a lot now." Shephard replied.

"Anyway, Gordon, what the hell did you do? It seems like that you have stirred up the hive. Everyone is on full alert." Gordon just shrugged.

"Uh Barney?" Alyx asked, she made an eye gesture to point towards Shephard. Barney stared at Shephard, looking for an explanation.

"I uh... killed three men dressed like you, but with white gas masks who tried to assault and detain me. Alyx saved by life by shooting another one, but my arm wasn't so lucky." Shephard said, pointing to his bandaged arm.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Barney asked Shephard, "Do you even know how powerful Civil Protection is?"

"To be honest Barney, no. The last thing I remember is Black Mesa, which was 20 years ago, apparently" Shephard said.

"Same here" Gordon cut in. "I have no idea what you guys are talking about when you talk about the Combine." Barney, Alyx and Kleiner all shared looked of confusion and concern. Suddenly, Alyx flashed back to her late teen years.

_Eighteen year old Alyx Vance was working in her dad's father's lab to repair an electrical fault. She was becoming quite the mechanic. Eli Vance was sitting at a desk, reading over some of his teleportation notes. Suddenly, Dr. Isaac Kleiner burst into the room, with a Vortigaunt behind him. He had a massive smile of his face, which was very rare to say the least_

_"Eli, I have good news about Gordon." _

_Eli looked up from his notes in surprise_

_"Freeman? Gordon Freeman?" he asked, bewildered. Gordon was considered to be dead. He was never heard from again after he left for Xen 13 years earlier._

_"Yes Eli, the Vortigaunts claim that they have acquired accurate intelligence on Gordon." Kleiner said, excited, looking that the Vortigaunt who accompanied him to tell Eli._

_"The Free Man lives!" he said. Eli gave a huge sigh of relief. "However, he is being detained, along with another being, in a place not of this Earth. I can tell you that this being is another human."_

_"When is he coming back?" Eli asked._

_"I do not know." the Vortigaunt replied "It could be tomorrow, or it could be in ten years." Eli frowned._

_"Don't worry Eli; at least we know we know he is alive, 13 years after leaving for Xen." Kleiner told his old friend. Eli just looked up at his friend, Kleiner could tell that he wanted to be alone, so he and the Vortiguant left. Once they were gone, Alyx got up to speak to her father._

_"Dad?" she asked. Eli jumped in surprise and turned around._

_"God honey, you scared me." he laughed. "What is it?" She noticed a few tears in his eyes. "What was that all about? Who is Gordon Freeman?" she asked, noticing his emotion. Her father just got up and retrieved the Black Mesa Anomalous Materials Research team photo from the wall. Only two faces on the posters meant something to her; her father and Dr Kleiner. _

_"Honey...I talked with you on this when you were younger, but I guess you've forgotten. Gordon Freeman is the reason we are alive." He pointed out the man in the back row with the think nerdy glasses and a goatee. Suddenly, images of her childhood flashed before her eyes involving that same man. Memories where she actually felt happy and not running for her life. She smiled, she knew exactly who her father was talking about. _

My father has a slideshow in his lab detailing the events over the last 20 years, it is probably the best thing we have in getting you guys up to speed. Let's just say a lot has happened, and it's impossible to cram into a few sentences." Both Gordon and Shephard nodded.

"Doc, we need to get them out of here. They'll jeopardise everything we've worked for." Barney told Kleiner

"Don't worry, they're coming with me." Alyx reassured him

"That's right Barney. We'll inaugurate the teleport with a triple transmission"

"You mean it's working this time? For real? Because I still have nightmares about that cat." Barney said with a shiver as he thought back to the first teleport test. Eli attempted to send a cat through the teleport, when it got to the other side, it wasn't recognisable.

"What cat?" Alyx asked no one in particular. Barney just stayed silent. Both Gordon and Adrain had confusion written on their faces

"What cat?" she asked again. When she was ignored for a second time, she put her hands up in frustration and went over to the security feeds. "Well Doc, if Gordon isn't taking the streets, you may as well get him out of his civvies." Barney said, pointing to Gordon's clothing. Shephard suddenly felt like he was invisible

"What? Oh, you are right. Barney, I'll give you the honour. "Kleiner told him

"I gotta get back on my shift, but ok." Barney said, walking towards a shutter beside the security feeds. It was connected to a four digit passcode reader. Barney punched the code in and the door opened to reveal something Gordon didn't expect to see at all. His HEV suit.

As Barney was about to open the container, a headcrab pounced from above it. Barney let out a suprised yelp and threw it away as it tried to attach itself to his head.

"Ah! God damn it, get it off me!" Gordon's eyes widened in horror, but Shephard let out a laugh. He was met by the glaring eyes of Barney and the surprised ones of Gordon.

"Ah Lamar, there you are." Kleiner said with relief

"Get me away from that thing." Barney said, pointing at the headcrab, which was now on the locker. It started to stare and make...headcrab gestures at Barney. Gordon started to miss his HEV suit, which was so close yet so far.

"Uhh Dr Kleiner, I'm with Barney on this one." Gordon said, staring at the creature.

"Nonsense Gordon, Lamar is debeaked and completely harmless." Kleiner said. He walked over to the locker where the headcrab was and started to tap his head, as if to coax it.

"Here my pet, up you hop." Kleiner told it. Lamar just ignored him and jumped back up to the ledge and into a small ventilation shaft, breaking old equipment along the way.

"Oh darn." Kleiner said "It'll be another week before I coax her out if there."

"Yeah, longer if we're lucky" Barney said with a strong sarcastic tone.

"Barney, you're not an animal person" Alyx stated jokingly. Barney just shivered in disgust. He walked back to the container and punched in the code. The doors opened and Gordon got into the suit, which took longer than Shephard would have liked. After watching Freeman get his HEV, he started to feel an itch to get into a PCV, which would make him feel a lot safer. In the normal world, he would have laughed at someone whose job description involved wearing an orange and black reinforced steel suit, but considering that he knew first hands what Freeman was capable of in one of those suits, his amusement diminished as the body count grew.

Gordon walked out into the room wearing the HEV suit. It looked, and felt, heavy and bulky, but it did the job. Gordon really needed to get back into the habit of wearing the suit again.

"Well Gordon, I see the HEV suit still fits you like a glove. At least, the glove parts do." Kleiner told him. Gordon just smirked at Kleiner's lame attempt at a joke. Kleiner bent down to a box under the desk and retrieved a clipboard.

"I've made a few modifications, but I'll just acquaint you with the essentials. The Mark V Hazardous Environment Suit has been redesigned for comfort and utility....." Not so far away, an alarm was heard, alerting Barney; and Shephard.

"Oh dear." Kleiner said.

"Come on Doc, we don't have time for this, we need to get these guys to Eli's lab, Gordon get that suit juiced up, there's a charger on the wall." Barney said, pointing to the black and orange device on the wall near the top left end on the lab. Gordon walked over and hooked his suit up to the device. It obviously didn't have much power, because it quickly ran out.

"You suit has been modified to draw power from Combine energy outlets, which are plentiful wherever they patrol." Kleiner told Gordon, who nodded in understanding. Alyx walked ahead towards the next room.

"Let's get this show on the road" she said as she walked into the teleport room and on to the platform on the teleport, which Gordon found to be fascinating, to say the least. Teleportation was his favourite field of Physics. It is how he got recruited into Black Mesa. Kleiner climbed up onto the ledge and Barney stood by a monitor directly in front of the door. Meanwhile, Gordon and Shephard stood side by side near a massive array of sockets which were connected to the teleport.

"Isaac? Are you there?" a deep voice called out, a second later, a face appeared on the monitor where Barney stood. Gordon smiled at the face of Dr Eli Vance.

"Yes, Yes Eli. There has been a bit of a hold up on this end. You'll never guess who found his way into our lab this morning." Kleiner told Eli, who put his face closer to the camera to get a good look at Gordon. He smiled when he recognised Gordon.

"That's not who I think it is Izzy?" he asked. But a questioning look came up on his face when he noticed Shephard. Kleiner noted his reaction when he noticed Shephard.

"Indeed it is. Oh and I'll let Shephard explain himself when he gets through, time is of the essence!" Kleiner told Eli. Eli thought for a second, and he then nodded.

"Yeah, ok. We are ready for you on this end, send them through." Eli said.

"Then let's do it." Alyx said. Suddenly, the teleport platform which Alyx was standing on started to ascend. It stopped when it was about 20 feet in the air, facing a massive contraption on the roof of the chamber. Kleiner started to mumble to himself as he configured the teleport.

"Conditions could hardly be more ideal." he concluded. Barney turned around to look up at him

"That's what you said last time." he countered, referring to the cat incident. A loud hum could be heard in the room as the teleported powered up. The rings started to rotate at different speeds around Alyx.

"So yeah, about that cat..." she started, but stopped as she focused on the rings rotating around her.

"Initializing in 3, 2, 1" Kleiner relayed. He pushed a button and the large contraption started to spew a blue green laser towards the teleport. As a result, the blue/green light surrounded Alyx. The rings around Alyx started to rotate faster and faster.

"Oh, I can't look" Barney said turning around and covering his eyes. Alyx stared to examine the weird light which engulfed her body.

"Okayyy, Oh Goddddddddd." she said, her voice getting higher ad the teleport sent her away in a flash of light. The display on the screen went to static for a second, and then Eli's face appeared on the screen again.

"Well? Did it work?" he asked hopefully.

"See for yourself." Eli simply told him. Alyx then appeared on the screen beside her father.

"Hey Doc." she greeted Kleiner, giving her father a kiss on the cheek and walked off screen. Both Kleiner's and Gordon's faces lit up. Kleiner was overwhelmed with relief.

"Thank Goodness" he shouted. Gordon was extremely impressed with the work of his peers, but he regretted not being able to help in any way. Barney and Shephard were also impressed, but neither possessed the scientific knowledge which was required to appreciate the feat in the same way Kleiner and Freeman did.

"Fantastic work Izzy." Eli congratulated his friend. The teleport platform lowered and the gates opened. Being the closest the teleport, Shephard mustered up some courage and walked on to the platform.

"Here goes nothing" he said quietly to himself.

"Well Corporal, it looks like you're up" Kleiner said

"Corporal?" Shephard heard Eli shout with what sounded like fear, but he then heard Alyx cut in to reassure him.

"Don't worry dad, we'll explain once he and Gordon gets through." The platform started to ascend and the rings started to rotate once again.

"Initializing in 3, 2, 1." Kleiner counted down again. He pressed the button and, as before, the laser emerged from the contraption into the teleport and the blue/green light surrounded Shephard. He saw the rings beginning to speed up, he knew that he would be transmitted in a few seconds. He looked at Kleiner and gave him a nod of thanks, Kleiner returned it. Suddenly, the world turned to black, and a second later, he arrived in another lab.

With both Shephard and Alyx successfully transmitted, it was now Gordon's turn to teleport to Eli's lab. The platform lowered and Gordon stepped on to it. As before, the gates closed and the platform ascended.

"Excellent. Initializing in 3, 2, 1" Kleiner repeated. The Â beam went above him and he was then bathed in the blue/green light, like Shephard and Alyx before him. Barney took a step closer to the teleport.

"Good luck out there Gordon" Barney told him, giving him a salute. Gordon nodded.

"Yes indeed" Kleiner agreed. "We are ready to project you Gordon. Bon voyage, and best of luck in your future endeavours."

The rings started to rotate faster and then everything went wrong. Horribly wrong. Seemingly out of nowhere, Kleiner's headcrab appeared. Barney turned around alarmed.

"What the hell?" he shouted. "What is it Barney?" Kleiner shouted back, Barney spotted the headcrab

"It's your pet, the freakin' headhumper!" he shouted. Gordon stared at the crab as it sat on a fan. It then pounced towards Gordon, who was suspended by the teleportation beam. In the background, Gordon heard Kleiner begging the crab not to proceed, but to no avail. The unexpected passenger reeked havoc on the teleporter's system and Kleiners extensive and complicated equations went out the window. The crab made contact with the beam on the exact instant of transmission, and in a burst of light, it sent Gordon to an unintended destination.

At first, he was transmitted into what looked like a desert with a strange, small tower in the distance. Lamar the headcrab hopped into the wilderness, but Gordon's journey continued. It was retransmitted back to Dr Kleiner's lab, where he started.

"There he is!" Barney shouted. He head Kleiner asking if his headcrab was there. Once again, he was transmitted to another location, which was another lab. In front of him was Alyx, who was standing right in front of the teleport, Eli and an unknown woman. Shephard was standing at the back of the room.

"He's coming through dad." Alyx stated, but frowned when she noticed that there was something wrong with the transmission. Eli turned to the unknown woman

"What's going on Judith?" he asked

"I don't know there must be some kind of interference." she stated. Eli then turned towards the control panel. "Gordon stay put, we'll get you out of there." Once again, Gordon felt himself being drawn away, and he was transmitted to an office lined with read carpet. Right in front of Gordon was a wooden desk, with an alien, Combine, terminal behind it. Gordon knew the man who was sitting behind it, Dr Breen. Once he saw Gordon, he leapt to his feet.

"What is the meaning of this?" he shouted in a strong, commanding voice

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" he questioned. Once again, Gordon felt himself being drawn away. He went back to where he started again, Dr Kleiner's lab.

"That's it, I'm getting him outta there." Barney stated. Kleiner stopped him

"No, you can't just go up there, It will tear you apart!" he warned.

"We just lost Gordon. What the hell is going on?" Gordon heard Alyx ask

"I have no idea." Kleiner replied, "I am experiencing unexpected interference."

"Don't worry Gordon, we'll-" he heard Barney start, but the sentence was cut short by another transmission. Once again he arrived at Eli's lab

"There he is!" Alyx shouted. Gordon again felt himself being drawn away.

"We are losing him again." the unknown woman replied. Gordon arrived back into the same office as before, but this time, Dr Breen was turned towards the terminal, speaking to a strange, grub like creature on the screen. Gordon found the creature weirdly interesting, "I'm all but certain it was....." he heard Breen say. He then turned towards Gordon and said in a low, sinister voice; "Gordon Freeman." Once again, Gordon was transmitted away; he was starting to feel nauseous. He sincerely hoped that this wasn't on an infinite loop. When he arrived at the next place, he felt himself falling. He then found himself submerged underwater. In the distance he heard a familiar sound. Then he saw it, the gaping jaws of one of the alien fish he encountered at Black Mesa.

"Damn" he thought, he closed his eyes in an attempt to flinch, but just in the nick of time, he was transmitted to another location. He landed on a metal catwalk, behind Dr Kleiner. He saw the light fade away around him, signifying that the transmission was complete, Gordon exhaled in relief, but he then frowned when he noticed where he was.

"He didn't come through" Eli stated. Gordon could see him on Kleiner screen

"Then where is he?" Kleiner shouted in frustration and concern. "Behind you." Eli simply stated. Kleiner turned around and let out a startled yell.

"Gordon! Run! You must get out of here!" he shouted, closing the blinds. Gordon turned around to find one of those hovering devices with the one orange eye. Gordon found its constant beeping and picture taking irritating. He jumped off the catwalk and sprinted away from the device. He ran through a chain link fence, kicked down a door and ended up beside a ledge with green ivy growing down the side of it... The doorway ahead was boarded up. In the distance was the Citadel, as he now knew it. The mid section was adjusting and thousands upon thousands of black dots were pouring out of it. In the background, the same alarm as he heard in the lab could still be heard. He heard a door open above him, and he was relieved to see that it was Barney.

"God, the Citadel must be on full alert; I've never seen it lit up like that. You need to get out of City 17 ASAP Gordon. Take the old canals right? They'll take you to Eli's place. It's a dangerous route, but there's a whole network of refugee and...they'll help you if they can. I'd come with you, but I gotta take care of Dr Kleiner. Oh, and before I forget…" he bent down and picked up something familiar, a red and silver tipped Crowbar.

"...I think you dropped this back in Black Mesa." He dropped the crowbar down to Gordon, who caught it with one hand

"Good luck out there buddy; you're gonna need it." Barney told him, giving him one last salute before turning around to go back inside. Gordon walked over to the boarded up doorway and whacked it with the crowbar. The wood crumbled, allowing him free passage. He walked through and started his journey through an unknown world which he once called home.


	6. Tour de Force

**I'm skipping out Route Kanal. For all intents and purposes, most of it plays out as it does in-game. This chapter is where my story goes a bit.....over the top. But I guess it's why they call it fiction. I am also implementing a few things that were cut from HL2 (Slide Show, Gunship Bay, maybe a few more things). As stupid as it sounds, I took a few things from MW2. You'll know when you see it, if you've played the SP that is. Also, spot the reference to another game that I have been playing a lot recently.**

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**Tour de Force**

In a flash of light, Shephard arrived in another lab. It was bigger than Kleiner's lab, and possessed a lot more equipment, which may have been due to the fact that Kleiner's lab was situated in the middle of the city, right under their adversary's noses. He stepped off the platform, under the watchful eyes of Eli Vance. He went and stood at the other end of the room, as if to avoid any unnecessary attention. Once got to the back of the room, he saw that Alyx had stepped closer towards the teleport in advance of the arrival of Freeman.

The empty receiver started to rotate, signifying that Freeman was en route. "Initializing in 3. 2. 1." he heard Kleiner say on the other end. Then, from what he could gather, all hell broke loose on the other side. He heard Barney and Kleiner shouting about that damned headcrab, which somehow got into the control room and fuck everything up for Gordon, who didn't come through after the projected couple of seconds travelling time. What ensued afterward was in Shephard's small brain, Freeman getting thrown all over the city using the teleport as a catapult of sorts. Eventually, the catapulting stopped, behind Kleiner's lab, right where it started. He felt sorry for Freeman, after encountering Civil Protection in the scrap yards; he didn't really like the idea of running through canals and sewers with them on his ass.

The feed cut, and the black man in front of the screen sighed.

"Damn it" he mused. Alyx was by his side, comforting him. "Don't worry dad, I'm sure Gordon will be fine. You more than anybody should know that." Alyx reasoned with her father, who nodded

"You're right Alyx. Gordon could probably get through the Civil Protection's lines without breaking a sweat." Eli agreed, but he couldn't stop thinking that this was his fault. He turned towards Shephard and limped towards him, Alyx by his side. The other woman was still working by the control panel, but Shephard guessed she was just eavesdropping. Eli's lower leg was missing, replaced by what Shephard perceived to be an improvised support, which wouldn't be surprising considering that he found Alyx digging around for teleport parts in a scrap yard

"Now son..." Eli started "Kleiner said that you are a Corporal rigjt? Eli asked

"That's correct sir. Corporal Adrian Shephard, United States Marine Corps." Shephard recited.

"He was assigned to Black Mesa." Alyx interjected. She could see the fear in her father's eyes so she quickly continued. "He is the second man dad. Remember? The fact that he and Gordon have come back can't be a coincidence. We can use them for the Resistance." Eli thought for a second, and nodded. He held out his hand to Shephard, which Shephard shook. "Thank You for understanding sir." Shephard told him, glad that he didn't have to go through another extended defence session

"No problem Adrian, by the way, call me Eli." Eli told him. Shephard turned to Alyx

"You guys wouldn't happen to have any spare gear lying around would you?" Shephard asked her "Because, you see, I getting a bit tired of these generic overalls." he said pointing at his clothing.

"I know just the person who can help you" she told him. "I'm taking him to see Dr Farnsworth, see ya Dad." she told her father, giving him a peck on the cheek and walked out into the hallway, which looked like a corridor from a nuclear missile silo, complete with thick blast doors. This wasn't exactly what Shephard expected to see when the word "hydroelectric plant" was mentioned. Shephard gave Eli a nod and followed Alyx into the corridor.

"What is this place?" Shephard asked

"You are in the City 17 headquarters of the Human resistance. It was a hydro electric plant when we found it, but it's anything but that now. We have another base in the Outlands outside of City 17 which was an old Soviet missile silo. We've been here for about 15 years, gathering and scavenging what pre Black Mesa military tech we can find, but most of the stuff came from before we got here since things are now scarce at best. Now, we have a massive assembly area and underground tunnels connected to various outposts along the coast. Lately, we have been moving our forces away from here in fear of Combine attack. We should complete the relocation by today." Alyx said. Shephard was impressed.

"You have been holed up here for 15 years and from the looks of it, you have fortified your position pretty well. Any way, why move your forces? Why now?" Shephard asked. As they walked down the hall, two men came walking in the opposite direction that caught his interest. Both men were dressed in combat gear and wearing a commercial woodland camouflage uniform, which looked to be close to worn out, and black kevlar body armour. Both men had ear pieces in their ear, obviously connected to a radio of some sort. One man had an Israeli TAR-21 assault rifle on his chest while the other one had an AK-47; the most iconic weapon is history. It's understandable since the AK would be a symbol of resistance anywhere. Their weapons were somewhat of a contrast with their clothing because, from what Shephard could gather, the weapons were in next to pristine condition. On their arms, Shephard noticed a familiar symbol, Lambda. Both men stared at Shephard as they walked past. Alyx answered him

"I don't know. Call it a gut feeling." As they continued down the hallway, a Vortiguant walked out of a room, and Shephard breath caught. He felt like he was caught with his pants down. No weapons; no protection; in a narrow, immobile space, with an "electro alien" just down the hall. He felt himself, for the since basic training, freeze. Sensing that he was not beside her, Alyx turned around to find Shephard wide-eyed, scanning the hallway frantically for an exit. She looked back and found a Vortiguant at the end of hall, a thought suddenly hit her, he still think the Vortiguants are hostile. "Don't worry Adrian, the Vortiguants are friends now, they were slaves back in Black Mesa." Alyx told him. Shephard could not believe his ears

"Huh...What?" he asked in disbelief

"Ever heard of the old saying, The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend?" She asked him, Shephard didn't really need more of an explanation.

"Yeah, that makes sense. Is it much further?" he asked, still sceptical.

"No, the lab isn't far now." Alyx replied "Anyway..." she continued "there are two main wings to the resistance: Military and Scientific. The Military wing use old military hardware while the scientists mostly build new weapons and try to improve exiting weapons. Others try to solve challenges that faced mankind 20 years ago, like teleportation. As you can probably gather, working conditions are not exactly great."

She turned to a door and pressed a button and the door slid open. Inside was another lab, about the sane size as the previous one. Except, this one didn't house a teleport, or anything particularly ground breaking. It just looked like your run of the mill science lab with a variety of chemicals on the wall and various pieces of electrical equipment. However, only one thing in the room was of interest to Shephard. In the centre of the room on a table, sat an Olive Drab coloured Power Combat Vest. Shephard felt the sudden urge to drop to his knees. This was the last thing his was expecting. At the table was a man in his mid fifties, dressed in a lab coat. He was examining the Vest and writing some notes.

"Dr Farnsworth?" Alyx asked, the man looked up and smiled

"Ah, Alyx!" the man said in a heavy British accent. "This must me the man that all the Resistance members are going crazy over, United States Marine Corps Corporal Adrain Shephard am I Â right?, I'm Doctor Ian Farnsworth, I'm in charge of examining and maintaining old military hardware." he said with a beaming smile on his face and he shook Shephard's hand.

"Sorry for my behaviour, it not like everyday you meet another survivor of the Black Mesa Incident, let alone a real soldier." Shephard smiled and nodded.

"News travellers fast?" he asked the Doctor, who nodded

"It sure does mate." he replied. The Doctor noticed that the Marine's attention was continually diverted to over his shoulder; he turned around a realised he was ogling the armour that he had been studying and modifying.

"A nice piece of kit isn't it?" he asked loudly to get the Marines attention.

"Hell yeah." Shephard replied.

"I've been studying it for around two years now, but I guess you know more about it than I do. You can have it. Besides, it will just sit around this lab collecting dust." Farnsworth said. He turned around and lifted the PCV off the table, with great physical effort, and handed it to Shephard.

"Oh, and before I forget, It came with these." He went into a drawer and took out with a plastic bag. Inside was a pair of black combat boots and familiar array of colours, pixelated green, black and brown, otherwise known as MARPAT to Shephard. He felt like a young boy who just got his Christmas presents early.

"Is there any where I can change?" Shephard asked

"There is a toilet at the far end of the room." the doctor replied. Shephard gave him a weird look. Farnsworth just rolled his eyes.

"I meant restroom." he corrected, "Americans", he grumbled quietly as Shephard walked into the restroom. Alyx chuckled.

Shephard walked into the restroom and locked the door. He put the toilet seat down and placed the equipment on top of it. Then, he looked in the mirror, he was suddenly taken aback.

_"No wonder Alyx questioned me on my age"_ he thought. He didn't look a day older than the day he left for Black Mesa. He could hear the ghostly voice of the man speaking to him during his captivity, it crept him out more than anything. He began to change out of the customary clothing and into his Marine BDUs. His mind had some time to think about things, he went back to Day 1 of his assignment to the HECU.

_The General's office was covered in pictures, mostly of his life as a Marine. One picture that Shephard found appropriate was a couple of men outside of the burning oil fields of Iraq dressed in NBC Hazmat suits during the first Gulf War. Suddenly, the door opened and Shephard leapt to his feet, as a sign of respect for the highly ranked soldier in front of him. He was dressed in the same apparel as Shephard; Woodland MARPAT BDUs with the sleeves neatly folded up as opposed to the formal dress suit that any normal General would hardly ever been seen without._

_General White, CO of the HECU was one of the best Generals in the Marine Corps. He had served for nearly thirty years and was next in line for the prestigious position of Commandant of the Marine Corps. Just being in the same room as this man gave Shephard a real sense of pride. Shephard saluted him._

_"Corporal Shephard reporting General." Shephard said. White returned the salute. _

_"At ease Corporal. Please, sit." he told him. On the General's desk was a thick folder. It was Shephard's personnel file. _

_I have to say Adrian, after looking through your file; I'm surprised that MARSOC hasn't taken you on board yet. You haven't got as much as a scuffed boot on your record son. Scout Sniper School; Marine Force Recon; SERE and a training course alongside the British Special Forces. You are probably one of the best Marine's I've ever seen on paper." White said truthfully. Shephard couldn't help but feel extremely honoured by the General's comments._

_"Thank you sir." Shephard said _

_"Adrian, I called you in here today to brief you personally on the more sensitive nature of the HECU. I trust you have been briefed on what our official role is?" he asked._

_"Yes sir, In the event of a Nuclear, Biological or Chemical attack on the western coast of the United States, our objective is to assist in the evacuation of civilians from major population centers." Shephard said _

"_Correct." the General simply stated. "I hope not one of our Marines gets utilized in the way that he is trained to do. However, these top secret duties are probably going to take up more of your workload." The General opened his desk and produced two thick folders. One was labelled "Black Mesa" while the other was labelled "Aperture Science" Both folders were labelled 'Top Secret'._

_"Some bed time reading for you Corporal." the General said._

_"Thank you sir." Shephard replied. He opened the files to the front page, which was basically the contents page. Shephard's mind was blown by what was on these pages. In the Aperture Science folder, Aperture was run out of a facility in the Mojave Desert and it mainly studied Portal Technology, where people can walk through one hole and walk out of another across the room. It also had a research vessel named the Borealis, which was docked in the Arctic Circle. What was interesting was that not even the intelligence community seemed to know what went on there; there was no description like the other fields. In the Black Mesa folder, it revealed that it was based out of a facility in the Arizona desert and it studied Inter Space Travel through teleportation among many other things. Looking at these folders was like reading the daily schedule of Area 51. Both folders were easily more than 3000 pages longs. These were to make great reading. The General could sense Shephard's curiosity and confusion._

_"I assure you, everything in there is real, and that's just background on the organizations and most of the facilities. Our main job is to monitor these organizations. In an emergency, we are called in to clean up the mess and assist security personnel in the exfil' of the science teams." the General told him. Shephard sensed that he should go. He got to his feet and saluted once again. "Thank you Sir." he said. The General got to his feet and returned the salute. He then held out his hand, which Shephard took in a shake. The General also put a hand on his shoulder_

_"It is a pleasure to meet you Corporal. You're a damn fine young Marine. I had a son like you once, I can see him in you." the General said quietly, sadly. Shephard nodded and walked out, carrying the two files with him. Never in his live has he felt this honoured, _

"_Maybe I should stay here for longer." he though prematurely. _

Once he finished thinking back, he was ready to leave. He had just put on his Power Combat Vest. He didn't know whether or not to be surprised at the fact that everything that he was just given fitted him perfectly. The PCV was just as bulky as he remembered thanks to the power supply and reinforced kevlar, but it will grow back on him. The power levels indicated that it had some power, but not a lot. He clipped on his belt, which held his side arm holster and a knife holster. Then he felt something in a pocket, he put his hands in and smirked when he found a pair of black fingerless gloves. He folded his sleeves and opened the door back into the lab, where Alyx was waiting for him

"Come on, I've got to show you something." she told him, heading towards the door.

"Thank you Doctor." he told Farnsworth and followed Alyx back into the corridor. They walked another couple of hundred metres, then Shephard started to the ground shaking as they came to another door. "This...is the assembly area." Alyx said as she opened the door to a metal catwalk. Shephard couldn't breathe once he saw what was on the other side. In the massive assembly area was the most diverse collection of running military hardware he had ever seen: M1A2 Abrams, T90 and T72 tanks, and even a few Merkavas. There well than over 50 tanks in the room, and they must've had more because they only took up around a quarter of the area. There was a column of tanks leaving through one of the tunnels that were scattered around the room. Alongside the tanks were Humvees with a variety of top gunner mounts, and there were even two Wolverine portable bridges.

"My god" was all Shephard managed to blurt out as he stared at the hardware below him. He had discovered a new found respect for these people. They must have been passionate about their goal in defeating this Combine, who seemed to be more technology advanced and had superior numbers. _His_ voice suddenly echoed through his mind again. _"I admire those who adapt and survive against all odds."_ Shephard shook it off as he heard Alyx say something to him.

"Impressive, isn't it?" she asked

"You guys seem to have outdone yourselves here." Shephard said. "I really didn't expect that you guys salvaged and maintained all of this hardware."

"Thanks." Alyx replied. "You need some weapons?" she asked. Shephard really didn't need to dignify that with an answer. He just gave her a 'what do you think' look. Alyx shrugged. "Ok, Let's go." she said. She walked down a corridor and into a door into what looked like an armoury. The room was completely white, and split up into isles with weapons stacked along the walls in a neat and tidy order. Scattered around the room where green plastic crates which he assumed where the weapons and ammo were packed before being shipped. A man stood with a clipboard on his hands, in front of the wall.

"Hey Vlad" Alyx said as she walked in, the man turned away from the wall to face her.

"Ah, hello Alyx" the man said in a heavy Russian accent. He looked at Shephard. "This is the Marine I assume?" he said. "That's him" Alyx said. Vlad held out his hand too Shephard

"Vladimir Ivanov. It is pleasure to meet you." he said, missing out the 'a' thanks to his sketchy English. Shephard nodded. "Likewise, I'm Corporal Shephard." he said. "This must be your armoury huh?" he asked.

"Yes, I assume you would like weapons?" Vlad asked.

_"Da"_ "Yes" Shephard replied in Russian. Vlad looked impressed. He steeped aside, allowing Shephard to choose

_"Chose what you like."_ Vlad said in Russian, feeling more comfortable with someone who spoke his native language. Shephard nodded while Alyx had a confused look on her face, she was wondering what hell they were saying.

Shephard walked along the isles, carefully inspecting each weapon. There was a massive selection of rifles, but he decided to pick two more close to home. The assault rifle he picked was the M4A1 Carbine, just like the one he had in Black Mesa, except there were a few differences. The rifle he had during Black Mesa had the original rail and upper receiver, it had no optics, only the iron sights that came with the carrying handle and it had a grenade launcher. This one, however, was the newer SOPMOD model. It had a flat top Picatinny rail on top of the receiver and on the barrel, which allowed him to easily attach accessories. In the place of the plain iron sights and carrying handle, was an ACOG 4x scope. Mounted on the rail were a fore grip and a flashlight, which was on the right side. The second rifle he picked was a sniper rifle, an M24 SWS with bi-pods. He couldn't find a Marine M40. The M24 was the Army variant, and both were based off of the same civilian rifle made by Remington. It would do his fine, if he really needed it at all. Lastly, he picked up a pistol for his sidearm, a Mk. 23 Mod 0. He then went over to the ammo dump and stocked up on magazines and ammo. Thanks to the space available in his PCV, he could take 10 30 round 5.56mm magazines, 30 .308 rounds and five 12 round .45 ACP magazines. It made the suit heavier, but it was nothing Shephard couldn't handle. He loaded his weapons and made sure a bullet was in the chamber and stowed them away. His Mk 23 went into his holster; the M24 was slung over his shoulder while his M4 was slung across his chest. He walked over to Vlad and Alyx, who was by the doorway. "Got enough weapons Adrian?" she joked when she saw him walking towards her. It amazed her how much one man could carry yet still walk as if he had no burden on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I do." he answered. _"Thank You"_ he said in Russian to Vladamir

_"Not a problem my friend."_ he replied, giving him a two fingered salute. _"Good luck" _he said as Shephard followed Alyx out the door.

"I have one more place to show you." she told him. They walked along the corridor. He felt as if the eyes of the entire base were upon him, which they were. This though made Shephard feel somewhat uncomfortable. Being naturally quiet and trained as a sniper, he preferred the approach that would attract the least attention, and he disliked it when all the attention is bombarded on himself.

Alyx and Shephard walked through the base by way of another maze of corridors, they came to another room. "This is the control room." Alyx stated as she opened the door. Inside was a room lined with radios and operators. In the middle was a thick wooden table surrounded by moderately old men. Among them was Eli Vance. Apart from Eli, all of the men were dressed in the same manner: worn out military uniforms in a variety of camouflages. All of the men turned and face both him and Alyx as they entered. No words were exchanged as the men at the table stared at Shephard, which was returned by the young Marine. The silence was broken by Eli, who walked over the him.

"Adrian, come in come in." he said, Shephard walked towards the table, but he was unable to get a look at what was on it since his view was blocked. Eli spoke again "These are the commanders of the various units of the Resistance. The man in the middle is Commander Lyons; he has overall command of our ground forces. Gentlemen, this Corporal Adrian Shephard of the Marine Corps." The men continued to stare

"That's impossible Eli, look at him for crying out loud. He is in his lower twenties. He must have been a child when the Black Mesa Incident occurred." one man spoke up, the others grunted in agreement. Eli shook his head. "That's were you are wrong Commander. Just as the Corporal and Alyx walked in, I was about to inform you that Gordon Freeman has also returned.

The reaction from the men was what Shephard could only describe as their jaws hitting the floor. Eli continued.

"Now, if this were an isolated incident, I would agree with you. But since both men appeared seemingly out of nowhere within hours of one another, after falling off the face of the earth after Black Mesa 20 years ago. This almost confirms my theory that there is a bigger outside influence that we once thought. Also, the fact that we have just completed our teleport and finished drawing up our liberation plans shows that this is much more than a coincidence. Someone sent Gordon and Adrian back to us, and we can use them for the Resistance.

"Yeah...about the plans...." one man started

"We have encountered a problem." another man finished. Eli's face turned to one of disappointment and concern

"What is it?" Eli asked. He walked up to the table. Shephard and Alyx and stood beside him. On the table was a massive map with illustrations on it. It was a battle plan.

"Wait." Shephard said. Everyone looked at him. "Would someone please get me up to speed with this plan? I want to know what you guys are talking about before you start talking about problems. Who knows, maybe I can help out." he suggested. The men looked at one another and nodded.

"Alyx?" Eli asked "Did you show him the…"

"Yeah." Alyx replied before her dad could finish the sentence. Eli nodded to Lyons allowing him to start.

"Ok Corporal" Lyons started "Over the last 20 years we have been collecting weapons, keeping them usable, recruiting personnel and waiting. Recently, we reached sufficient manpower from which we can use to retake City 17. Since then we have been drawing up plans to do just that. However, with that comes with a feeling of insecurity and paranoia. I am sure you witnessed the relocation of an armoured convoy?" he asked, Shephard nodded. "We are moving them out due to increased chatter, but it is also in advance of a possible move to retake the City. We have not decided on a date though. The plan is to move columns around the coast along the main highway, basically encircling the city. Once that's done, we fight our way to the Citadel. Pretty simple really." "What the problem?" Shephard asked. "This." Lyons pointed to a large circle on the map, which was due north of the City, on the coast. "Nova Prospekt. Before the war, it was a maximum security prison. But now, all we know is that is where are human prisoners are taken and god knows what they had dome to them. It's also home to the majority of the Combine's air support. It is one of the few weaknesses our tanks have. If their air support is eliminated, we'll be home free. However, the prison is situated on top of a cliff which can't be accessed by land vehicles. The only way up is by foot or by air, but we haven't got any aircraft. The terrain is treacherous; we haven't found any one crazy enough to take on the job." A small light bulb switched on in Shephard's head.

"Why can't me and Freeman do it?" he asked. "I mean, do have any better candidates? A legendary scientist in a bullet-proof Hazmat suit and a Marine who has extensive special forces training. The best part is that we haven't aged a day since the Incident. It's doesn't come fresher than that." Lyons thought for a few seconds and came to a decision

"I'll consider it. By the way, where is Gordon Freeman any way?" Lyons asked

"Uhh.." Shephard started, he looked to Eli for an answer

"Gordon was caught in a teleporter malfunction. He is coming in on foot through the canals." Eli explained

"Great." Lyons mumbled. He turned to his colleauges. "Alright guys, get back to your units. Stay alert out there."

At that, the group dispersed. Eli, Alyx and Shephard too walked out. The trio walked along the corridor. Shephard suddenly remembered that he was to supposed to watch some presentation on the last 20 years

"Hey Alyx, what happened to that presentation that you said you would show me?" he asked "When Gordon gets here, we'll show both of you." she replied.

"Thanks. Oh, and is it safe to go up topside? I wouldn't mind to get another look at the outside world." he asked It was Eli who answered him this time.

"Sure, Alyx, will you show Adrian the front door?" he asked his daughter.

"Sure thing dad." Alyx said. Shephard held out his hand to Eli.

"It was a pleasure to meet you Eli." Shephard told him

"The pleasure is all mine son, I'm glad you are on board." Eli replied. Shephard smiled and followed Alyx to another elevator. The old doors closed and the elevator began its ascent. Alyx turned toward Shephard

"Yeah, as my dad said before, I'm glad to see you are with us in this fight, even though you don't know what you are I fighting. You will find out in due time. The men already look up to Gordon as a leader and a role model. With your arrival, past events aside, you could become another role model. The men will look up to Gordon and you, and look to both of you for leadership. When the time comes" Alyx told him frankly, Shephard gave her a nod

"I understand." he replied. He was prepared to see this through, even if it meant his death. The elevator arrived and they walked out into another hallway. Alyx walked over to a keypad beside a thick blast door. She punched in the code. An alarm sounded as the door hydraulics went into action and lifted the door. Alyx turned to Shephard as he was about to walk out.

"Out there is the old office building and transformers. You can find a good spot in there; you can come back in when you are ready." Shephard nodded

"Thanks, see ya later." he said as he walked towards the exit.

Once he got into fresh air, he was surrounded by high concrete walls, which was an old remnant of the plant that was here before. He found a door, but it was locked. So he shouldered his M4, turned on his flashlight and kicked the door down. He cleared three floors of the building without any resistance. It was always better to be safe than sorry, even if it was outside the Resistance's base. On the top floor there was an office which had a view of the entire landscape.

The sun was getting low, Shephard estimated that it was around 5pm. Below him was an old canal that probably was once a river, now it was a stream of thick, toxic sludge. It looked so bad that it seen to emit a greenish gas. In the distance he could see a Civil Protection outpost with a chopper on its helipad. Suddenly, he heard alarms and the chopper's rotors spun into action, lifting off and flying further into the distance.

Shephard decided that this would be his over-watch position. If this was the only entrance, he knew Gordon would be coming through this way. He would be there to greet him. In the event that Gordon was "coming in hot"; he would need to give fire support. He took a table from the other end of the room and slid it against the wall, under the window sill. He took his M24 off his back and unfolded the bipods. He put it on the table, and he placed his M4 on the table beside it. The then took a chair and sat on it behind the table. And he waited

After a few hours of constantly observing the outpost, Shephard started to get bored. His trigger finger was really starting to get itchy. For the 100th time, he calculated the distance to the outpost from his position, which was about 900 yards. It was not an easy shot. Thankfully, there was an old Ukrainian flag not far away which served as Shephard's wind speed and direction indicator. It made the shot just that little bit easier. He turned the dials on his scope to compensate for the distance and wind. Then, in the distance he heard the chopper that took off only a few hours earlier, and with it came the unmistakeable sounds of explosions. Shephard shifted his aim to the chopper. A strange projectile was hitting it from the bottom, and the chopper seemed to be dropping what looked like mines. Then suddenly, it turned into a frenzy. The chopper seemed to dispense hundreds of mines at once and then started to spin. It slammed into the outpost and erupted into a massive fireball. What guards were left were left confused and wounded. Shephard decided to use this opportunity to his advantage. He centered his crosshairs on a cop's back as he staggered away. He pulled the trigger, and the rifle fired a single shot. Two seconds later, the man fell with blood spurting out of his back. Shephard reloaded by releasing the bolt and took aim at another cop as he aimed his machine gun at whatever was down there. He centered the crosshair on the cop's head and pulled the trigger again. Two seconds later, the man no longer had a head. Shephard exhaled loudly as he pulled the bolt back. All he could hear was a fire roaring where the wreckage was and a low hum. The hum gradually got louder and then, something turned the corner. Whatever that thing was, it was skimming over the toxic sludge with relative ease. Shephard aimed through his scope to look at the driver, and he was greeted by the familiar colour of orange

"Son of a bitch, he made it." he said to himself with a smile.

**I hope none of you have been turned off by this. R&R.**


	7. The Seven Hour War

**Well, here's the next chapter. First, a bit of an explanation for my Resistance. In my view, the Resistance is HL2 was grossly underpowered. The Combine were more technologically advanced, had far greater numbers and air support to go along with it, yet somehow the Resistance prevailed. Not even the "human spirit" could have won that war. The inclusion of armour on the Resistance turns the tide a bit. The combined Infantry, Light Vehicle and A****rmour force could surprise the Combine enough to assure victory. The "presentation" in this chapter actually outlines my other story, Semper Fidelis, and is inspired by early scripts written up by Marc Laidlaw (Half Life's writer if you didn't know) during the HL2 development cycle. Another change is the "Gun Ship Bays" at Nova Prospekt, which were in an early pharse during the HL2 beta leak, but were then cut from the game. On with the chapter.**

* * *

**The Seven Hour War**

As the Gordon and his boat left his sights, Shephard leapt from his chair, picked up his M4 and ran across the room to another window. He saw Gordon disembark from the boat about twenty feet away from his position.

"Hey, Freeman!" Shephard shouted, lifting his rifle above his head. Gordon turned towards him, he was carrying a machine gun, much like the one that the guard whose head he had blown off was using. It looked to be based on the MP7. His boat looked crude. It was built completely out of spare parts. The propellers were basically pieces of sheet metal wielded together.

"You alright?" Shephard shouted

"Yeah" Gordon shouted back

"Alyx is waiting for you. She should be just inside, or she will either be in her father's lab. Go on in, I'll clean up and make sure you were not followed." Shephard shouted, Gordon gave him a thumbs up and walked towards the door to the base.

Shephard turned around and walked back to his sniping position and got ready to leave, he would have to make it quick. Anyone with a brain would know that the Combine's response to this will be to send air support and a contingent of ground troops. He needed to make it look like nobody has been here. He slung his M4 back across his chest and taking another look at the carnage for any more survivors before slinging his M24 over his back. He then "policed his brass", and put the table and chair back to where they belonged. He jogged out, but when he arrived at the door, he remembered that he kicked it down. He cursed himself when he saw the damage to the lock. He sighed; he couldn't do anything about it. He just closed the door over and he hoped that it would stay in place. He quickly walked to the blast door and walked into the air lock. Suddenly, the doors slammed shut and an alarmed sounded.

"What the fuck?" Shephard shouted as the door slammed behind him.

"Don't worry Corporal, it's standard operating procedure" a soldier said in the other room. Shephard grunted in reply as a red laser beam filled the room and passed over Shephard. A few seconds later, the laser disappeared and the door ahead was opened. Shephard walked forward into the base, the soldier who spoke earlier walked around the corner from the left.

"Sorry sir" the soldier apologised, "Dr Mossman told me to tell you that she brought Dr Freeman down to Eli's lab."

"Who?" Shephard questioned

"Dr Mossman, sir" the soldier repeated. When Shephard showed no sign of recognition, he sighed.

"You know, the female scientist that wears that white sweater." Shephard nodded, she was the one that he suspected was eavesdropping.

"Thanks" Shephard said. The soldier nodded and did the last thing Shephard expected him to do. He saluted.

_"Well, this feels awkward."_ Shephard thought, half-heartily returning it.

Shephard walked towards the elevator that he came up in just a few hours earlier, he pressed the button, the primitive doors slid shut and its descent began. As the elevator passed other floors, he noticed a strange sight: A human and an "electro alien"- or "Vortigaunts" as Alyx called them- playing chess. Eventually, Eli's lab came into view, but he could hear the raised voices of Alyx and another woman coming from inside from two floors above.

"Are you blaming me?" Alyx said is a dark tone, advancing on Mossman is an aggressive posture. Mossman responded by putting her hands up in restraint.

"No, it was a mathematical error, not a mechanical problem." Mossman explained. The elevator arrived; Gordon was silently observing the exchange from a few feet away while Eli was working on something. Both men looked in Shephard's direction, and acknowledged his presence. To two women, on the other hand, continued to argue as if nothing had happened. Shephard walked over beside Gordon, took his hands off his rifle, stuck them inside the chest area of his PCV, and watched silently, both men hesitated to get involved.

"Well then, I guess I should do the calculations next time as well as installing it." Alyx said bluntly

"Alyx, really, sometimes I think you deliberately misunderstand me." Mossman replied. Eli had had enough; he hobbled over towards the quarrelling women in an attempt to stop it.

"Ahem" he cleared his throat loudly, both women stopped.

"Alyx, why don't you go and set up the showing area so we can get Gordon and Adrian up to speed." Eli told his daughter

"Sure thing dad." Alyx said, relieved at chance to get away from Mossman.

"Come on guys, let's get out of here." she said as she walked towards the door, with Gordon and Shephard in tow. She punched in the code and walked quickly into another room which wasn't far down the hall. The room its self was simple, there were a few chairs that sat facing a large screen. Alyx walk up to an old projector and turned it on, the screen became bathed in white light. Then, Eli walked in.

"I am sorry about that Gordon and Adrian." Eli apologised.

"It's okay Eli; let's get this over and done with shall we?" Shephard said sitting down on a chair in front of the screen; Gordon sat down in the other one. Eli walked beside the screen, turned off the light and nodded to Alyx to start. A image flashed on the screen, it was an aerial view of Black Mesa, nearly a complete copy of what Shephard received in his HECU file three months before.

"Black Mesa. Let's not dwell on that. You both know what happened. Anyway, this satellite photograph was taken four months before the Incident....." Eli took a deep breath and pressed the button. ".....and this was it a week after it" In the new picture, the landscape had completely changed. In the area where the structure surfaces were on the previous photo were gone. What was left was nothing more than a smoking crater.

"What.....happened?" Gordon asked. Before Eli could answer, Shephard did.

"The facility was destroyed by a thermo-nuclear warhead planted by Black Ops. I'd know because I disarmed it, at least, I'm pretty sure I did. I heard it power down. But obviously someone re-activated it. One of my last memories before ending up here was watching the nuke detonate. But obviously that caused more harm than good." Shephard finished.

"Damn right it didn't" Eli agreed "Rather than destroying the initial link between Xen and Earth, it actually seemed to accelerate it's growth and power." He pressed the button and a picture of a suburb came up, it was burning.

"While we were getting killed at Black Mesa, the entire world was dragged into this. Vortigaunts, Grunts and other creatures teleported into the suburbs and killed whoever they came into contact with. Entire eco systems were destroyed or altered. "Portal Storms" facilitated their travel to Earth. Those who survived the initial storms travelled to the cities, which became the safest places on Earth, thanks to their substantial military presence." Eli pressed another button, and a picture of New York appeared. Except, in this photo, there was a massive fence, with people lining up in an attempt to get in. The area inside of the fence was extremely militarized; Tanks and soldiers lined the perimeter while helicopters could be seen flying away. It looked like something you would find along the 38th parallel, not Manhattan. The cities seemed to be nothing more than massive military bases.

"For two weeks, it remained this way. In the first few days, the Vortigaunts and Grunts were initially hostile. But after Gordon eliminated the thing that was holding the Portal open, they disappeared. When Gordon was finished, the portal should have closed, but it did not. There was a second influence that was holding it open." Eli pressed the button and a picture of the New York City skyline came up on the screen.

"New York City was occupied by a Marine division within hours of the outbreak. They sealed off the city and they were later reinforced by the Army. For two weeks they conducted missions designed to eliminate any hostile aliens and find any possible survivors. However, one day, all that went south. A massive storm hit, bigger than any of the previous ones. Central Park vanished and what was left was a gaping hole in the Earth. The military was left in disarray as their staging point was in Central Park, and all of their high ranking officers were being briefed at the time of the storm. However, they were united together under one particular Marine Major." Eli pressed the button and a picture of Commander Lyons appeared, albeit younger.

"Commander Nathan Lyons, then a Major, was the leader of a Force Reconnaissance company. Its remaining members are now senior commanders of the Resistance. Not long before Central Park was lost, Lyons and his unit was the first human to openly engage the Combine in combat, and he won, albeit with heavy air support" he added. He then changed the subject slightly

"After Black Mesa, I, Isaac and Alyx were the only survivors that we knew about; so we travelled. We eventually found the Vortigaunts, who were in disarray themselves in the aftermath of the death of their ruler, who was the thing that was holding the Portal open. We learned that they were enslaved by their ruler, which is why they were hostile, but since he was killed, there wasn't any point in fighting. They were a tribal species, and their consciousnesses were connected together, so if one member of the tribe learns something, everyone else learns. So by the time we found them, they could speak damn good English. We also learned that they were on the run from something only known as the 'Universal Union.' So we travelled with them, and they protected us and we began to trust them. When the big portal storm occurred, you could tell that they were getting anxious. Not long after, we arrived at Manhattan; and after a lot of persuasion on mine and Kleiner's part, they were allowed in. Then......" Eli pressed the button

"They arrived. 'Say hello to your new masters'" A Citadel came into view, its size dwarfed the Empire State Building.

"It was then we understood what the Vortigaunts were running from. And by God did it scare us." Eli pressed another button, a picture showing the military, along with Vortigaunts, surrounding the Citadel.

"It stood there dormant, and world leaders, who were in the UN building, became restless. Lyons was ordered to assault the Citadel, much to his dismay, because he knew that an all out assault against these beings was suicide. Even though he had combat experience against the Combine, he was ignored. Once we engaged them, the doors on the Citadel opened, and they fought back." Another picture came up of groups of tanks burning and smoked out. Some were reduced to ashes. "We held our ground for seven hours. We were apparently the most formidable adversary the Combine had ever come across, because some species didn't last minutes, while the Vortigaunts lasted two hours. After those seven hours, though weary, mankind still had a lot of fight left in it, but we 'surrendered'. It became known as the Seven Hour War." Another picture came up on the screen, one both Gordon and Shephard knew only too well.

"Doctor Wallace Breen" Eli simply stated, but both men could sense the hate that seethed through the voice. "That bastard claimed to 'have humanity's best interests at heart' but in the end, all he wanted was power, as if exploiting some of the world's finest minds wasn't enough. Not long after the War started, he began to 'contact' the leadership of the 'Universal Union', claiming to be Earth's representative. He eventually came to a deal. He held a speech to the world leaders at the UN building, and with the Combine watching, he offered them an ultimatum: Surrender and achieve immortality or fight and become extinct. The world leaders were aware of the extreme numbers of casualties, both in New York and in other cities around the world where more Citadels landed, and became desperate: they agreed. Soldiers were ordered to drop their weapons and surrender. Needless to say, Lyons countermanded that order and told them to get out and regroup on him while they still had the chance. Some succeeded while most did not." The final picture appeared: lines of soldiers with their hands over their head getting escorted on to a drop ship by mech-type creatures. It was a powerful image. If it were any other war, it would be what the pictures of the atomic bomb detonation were to Japan. It disheartened both men, Shephard in particular

"On that day, I, Kleiner, Alyx, and Major Lyons, his unit and the remaining soldiers and marines formed the bulk of the Human Resistance. The rest, as they say, is history." The projector powered off and Eli turned the light back on. Both men were silent for a good thirty seconds.

"Wow" Gordon finally said in amazement. Shephard couldn't get his mind around the statement that every military force in existence was defeated in just seven hours.

_"That is impossible, it....it just couldn't happen"_ he thought "Adrian?" Eli asked, Shephard looked up "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I just can't believe that every military on the planet was systematically defeated in just seven hours." he said

"Yeah, I know how you feel." Eli said

"So, what happens now?" Gordon asked

"It's kind of a long story Gordon, I'll explain on the way to the yard." Alyx answered. "I'm showing you the Gravity Gun -or the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator." Gordon's face lit up, that sounded advanced; he suddenly wanted to see how such a device would work. Alyx walked towards the door, and Gordon was behind her. Shephard stood up from his chair also, but he had something else in mind.

"Go on, I'll be right behind you." he said. Alyx nodded

"Come on Gordon" Alyx said as she walked out, Gordon followed her. It was just Eli and Shephard left in the room

"Eli, where can I find Lyons?" Shephard asked

"He has a room down the hall, but I don't know if he is still here." Eli replied

"Thanks." Shephard replied and he walked out of the room and down the hall. He came to a door, and he knocked on it

"Come" the voice inside simply replied. Shephard opened the door to find Lyons on the other side. He was writing at his desk. Like Shephard, he was wearing a PCV; they didn't look to be in good supply, because the rest of the resistance foot soldiers wore conventional kevlar body armour. Lyons looked up from his work.

"Corporal Shephard, what can I do for you?" he asked

"I came to ask if you have decided sir" Shephard replied.

"My answer is yes, you were right back there, we need all the help you can get. Does Freeman know about the mission?" Lyons asked

"Thank you sir, I haven't spoken to him about it, but I believe Alyx has. She took him to show him something called the Gravity Gun." Shephard replied, Lyons laughed. "What is it?" Shephard asked

"It is a man-portable heavy lifter, it can lift heavy objects and either hurl them or drop them. They can do some serious damage if deployed, but we don't have the resources to develop more, it will be in the right hands." Lyons replied

"Eli showed us the slideshow." Shephard stated

"Oh" was Lyon's response.

"You were a Major in Marine Force Recon. I knew I had seen you before, you were on duty at the BRC while I was training there." Shephard said

"You're right. " Lyons said "Now that you mention it, I remember you as well. Only 1% of all Marines got into the BRC, only half of those complete it. You on the other hand, aced it. I was about to personally request your transfer to my unit, but before I got the chance, you were whisked away to another Special Forces unit for more training" Lyons replied with regret in his voice. Shephard stood up straight and saluted, which was returned by Lyons.

"It feels good to salute a fellow Marine sir, what are you going to do now?" he asked

"I'm heading out. All of our armour and men have been relocated. The armour is holding their position in the tunnels so they can remain undetected by the Combine if or when outposts are attacked. When they receive confirmation that the air base at Nova Prospekt has been neutralized, they will commence their assault. Everything is riding on your success Corporal." Lyons said

"I understand sir." Shephard replied. He was about to leave when Lyons added one more thing.

"Watch you six, Devil Dog." Lyons said with a smile. Shephard chuckled

"Oorah" he replied and walked out. He walked through the facility until he arrived at what he assumed was the entrance to the Scrap Yard. He opened the air lock and walked out into the Yard. It was nightfall, but the area was lit up by portable lights. It would have been peaceful if there wasn't a constant zapping sound, which Shephard assumed to be the Gravity Gun. He jumped up onto a shipment container and walked to the___/ other end of the area, which was a small courtyard littered with junk. In the courtyard was Gordon, who was wielding a massive and bulky looking device which was glowing orange; Alyx and a, to simply put it, a robot. Gordon hurled a "ball" to the robot, which caught it and hurled it back, it was basically catch. Alyx waved at Shephard, who jumped down from the crate and walked over.

"Lyons said yes" Shephard said simply, Alyx nodded. Then, the robot at the other end of the courtyard lifted a skip, Alyx turned and intervened.

"No Dog, no! Put that down!" she shouted, the robot obeyed, but started to go crazy, hitting the ground.

_"Dog?"_ Shephard thought _"Cute"_

"What's gotten into you?" Alyx asked the robot, then, the sound of explosions could be heard not so far in the distance.

_"Aw hell" _Shephard thought.

"The Combine is sweeping the area!" Alyx shouted "Get inside!" Alyx, Gordon, Shephard and Dog all ran for the airlock, they sealed the door and Alyx turned to a small TV screen/intercom, which was mostly filled with static.

"Dad? Dad do you read?" Alyx shouted through the intercom

"It's the Overwatch, they have found us." Alyx told her father.

"Are Gordon and Adrian with you?" Eli asked

"Yeah, they're here, we're stuck in an air lock." Alyx said, the signal started to break up

"Alyx, you mu....et them out of here. They must compl....eir mission. Head for the Coast. Don't go through Raven-" Eli was cut off in mid sentence as the power was cut. The entire room was filled with a red glow.

"Damn it, Dog get this door open, tear it down if you have to." Alyx ordered her robot, which nodded and started to bash the airlock with its fists. He weakened the lower edge of one of the doors and lifted it up slightly, just enough so that Alyx could crawl through. He opened the door high enough so that both Gordon and Shephard could walk through. Alyx started to sprint through the complex; small pieces of rubble were coming off the ceiling. Alyx was a good six or seven feet ahead of the pair, then the roof caved between them.

"Whoa" Gordon shouted as they suddenly stopped to avoid the rubble. There was a small gap on the right side where Alyx looked back the two men, both of them ran up. Behind her was the green Vortigaunt electrical discharge/attack.

"Guys, you need to get out of here. I can't leave my father. We can't afford either of you to be captured, both of you are probably high value targets for the Overwatch. Dog, bring them to the Ravenholm tunnel and then circle around to meet me." Alyx ordered, and then she took one last look at the pair "Good Luck" she finished. At that, she moved away further into the facility. Dog ran back towards the way they came and went down a second passage way and they came to a stop at a door. Dog it lifted up, and both men walked through. Dog then dropped the container and ran back into the facility. Gordon turned on his HEV flashlight and Shephard turned on the flashlight on his M4.

"Lets go." Shephard said, walking slowly forward. "Did Alyx mention this 'Ravenholm' place to you?" he asked

"Not really" Gordon replied "She simply said that they 'didn't go there anymore'"

"That doesn't sound good" Shephard remarked. Eventually, they found a light source. They were in what looked like mine shaft. On the floor was, what they assumed, a dead human

"Man, that's fucking nasty" Shephard said. The victim had no skin, his muscles, bones and vital organs were visible. There was a long ladder leading up the shaft, but there was a cage padlocked to the bottom to the ladder. Gordon picked up his sidearm and fired one shot into the lock, which fell apart and the cage opened, allowing them to climb up.

"Well, after you Doc." Shephard said. Gordon started to climb, and so did Shephard. Neither man expected to be working side by side, but they had no choice, they would have to make this partnership work. They were on their own in a world where some of its inhabitants would gladly kill, skin and dismember you. Others would like to eat you while others would shoot you for sport. It would have been hard to believe that this world was once considered home. They had a mission, and what was left of humanity was depending on their success.

**There you go. As I said at the end of my other story, I won't have time to update as my exams start soon. I will be writing, just not uploading (iPod Notes and PCs don't mix). Oh, two things that may need explained:**

**"BRC" stands for Basic Recon Course. It is a course that every Marine must pass so that he may become a Recon Marine. Those statistics are true too. Thanks Generation Kill.**

**"Devil Dog" is a nickname given to Marines.**

**R&R :)**


	8. Ravenholm

**So yeah, it's been a while. Personally, I thought writing this chapter was a bit tedious. Zombies are just mindless things that charge at you and leave very little room for creative strategy, unlike soldiers, who can react to fire in many different ways and can use teamwork and tactics to take you down. By the way, if you happen to think that Shephard swears too much, I'm gonna have to politely tell you to deal with it. He's a soldier, and in my mind, soldiers swear a lo****t****, especially when they are in stressful situations. Watch any movie involving soldiers in a war or watch raw footage from Iraq or Afghanistan, it would be hard not to find swear words somewhere. Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**Ravenholm**

The ladder was a long one. The mine shaft seemed to extend to 300 feet below the surface. At the end of it all, even Shephard started to fell the strain in his arms. The two men ended up in a small shack, then they walked out into the town. By now, the sun had completely set, and several dim lights scattered the area. There was faint stench in the air. A single raven crowed at their presence and the flew of into the night sky. There was a pod embedded in the ground, which caught the attention of Gordon. There was one particular feature of the area that caught the attention of both men. In the middle of the area was a bare tree; on one of its branches was a rope; and handing from that rope was a decomposing lower half of a human body that had been decapitated.

"Goddamn it, I take my previous statement back" Shephard said, pointing at the legs "THAT is fucked up. I mean, seriously, why would someone do that?" he asked. Gordon walked slowly, scanning the ground, then he found what he was looking for.

"To send a message" he simply stated. "Shephard, take a look at this" Gordon said. Shephard walked over to Gordon's position, and when he saw what Gordon was looking at, he instantly went for his rifle; but restrained himself when he noticed the creature was actually dead. Lying on the earth was a dead headcrab. Shephard started to feel nervous

"Aw shit" he stated, staring down at the pale creature.

"The Combine use these things as a form of biological weapon now." Gordon said pointing at the pod a few metres away. "Those pods are used to house them, I encountered a couple on the way to the lab. It's like the Combine's artillery." Gordon said.

"That's just great." Shephard mumbled. He was really feeling his nerve getting to him

_"How many of these thing did the Combine deploy in here?"_ he thought

"Come on, we need to move." Gordon said, Shephard agreed, and both men walked towards another shack, which seemed to have artificial light coming from it. Inside, they found a cache of explosive canisters and rusty saw blades. which were embedded in the wall. On top of one of the blades at the far end of the room was the upper half of a human body, except his appearance didn't seem to paint a nice picture. His face was a mixture of pale white and bloody red. His facial expression was one of horror as he looked to be screaming, his clothes were covered with blood, dirt and dried puss. The smell was intolerable, both men recoiled at the stench. His chest seemed to have burst open, like the humans from the Alien movies, but this trait was also commonly shared with those who became the hosts of head crabs, these unfortunate souls have been known as Zombies ever since their beginning of their existence during the Black Mesa Incident due to the way in which they mindlessly staggered and hobbled towards their prey without any consideration or hesitation. On the floor below the circular blade was his legs and lower torso.

_"Seriously, what kind of fucked up place is this?"_ Shephard thought. He started to walk over to the torso when he heard a groaning sound that sounded awfully familiar. Shephard reached for his M4, quickly flipped the safety off and aimed it at the door way. Gordon on the other hand, had an idea. He hoisted the Gravity Gun and pulled a blade from the wall. The saw blade was now resting in the middle of orange sparks or bolts coming from the centre of the contraption. Gordon walked into the path of the door way to find two zombies slowly hobbling towards them. Shephard moved behind Gordon to observe. Suddenly, a large orange lightning bolt propelled the sharp and rusty blade clean through the two zombies, killing them both and cutting them in half. Gordon looked at the Gravity Gun and gave a smug smile; he loved this thing. Shephard just stood with awe. Shephard stepped forward into the next room with Gordon behind him. He turned the corner into a dark hallway. He turned on his flashlight and continued, he then heard more groans around the corner. He turned to find another group of zombies, slowly approaching. He aimed his M4 at the crabs on their head at first, but he then noticed a red barrel sitting by the wall, in the direction of the zombies. He adjusted his aim and fired a single shot. The barrel ignited for several seconds and exploded. The resulting shrapnel tore the first zombie apart and ignited the second one on fire. The zombie lifted its arms and yelled, but still continued towards the two men. The flames ignited his clothes, but soon his entire body was engulfed in flames. It was almost as if he was doused in petrol. The zombie's yells almost sounded human. It sounded like he was saying "WHY ME?" or "GET IT OFF ME!". Both men did feel remorse, because they knew that hosts were just innocent people before, but they also knew that killing them could be seen as the ultimate act of compassion; as there was no way to un-reverse their mutations. The burning zombie eventually succumbed to it's injuries, and was still burning as the two men walked past and back out into a small courtyard. There was a crude looking device that was spinning in the middle of the passage way out, then a loud booming voice could be heard.

"For it was said that they became like these peculiar demons which dwell in matter, but in whom no light can be found!" Both men were alerted by the voice, they aimed their weapons at the roof tops, but there wasn't anything there

"You hear that?" Shephard whispered.

"Yeah" Gordon whispered back. They looked to where the spinning device was to see a pack of zombies staggering towards them. However, every single one walked straight into the spinning blade, which cut them in half one by one. After the zombies were finished, Gordon and Shephard had to figure out how to get past the thing, because they too would get decapitated by its blade.

"Any ideas Doc?" Shephard asked

"I think there's a switch in the main body of the contraption." Gordon said. He got down into a prone position, and he found that he was right, there was a small red lever in the middle of the contraption.

"Here, hold this." Gordon said, giving Shephard his Gravity Gun. Its extreme weight almost made Shephard drop it. As Gordon slowly crawled under the spinning blade, Shephard hoisted the Gravity Gun and picked up a wooden box with it. He was perplexed, and when he fired it into a wall, it broke into various pieces. he felt somewhat giddy. He wished he had something like this as a kid. Suddenly, the spinning stopped, and Gordon got up from the ground. Shephard gave him back the Gravity Gun.

"I really could use one of those you know" Shephard said with a smile. The men continued and cleared another room with zombies and several independent headcrabs. Then, they got to a network of small narrow streets. There was the undeniable smell of burning flesh lingering in the air. The pair turned a corner and were greeted to a unusual spectacle. Outside a building at the far end of the street, a large fire burned, it was almost like a wall of fire. The screaming of zombies could be heard, and figures emerged from the fire, hobbling down the steps slowly. Then, a door smashed opened at the top of the building. Shephard hoisted his M4 and aimed at the figure in the door way while Gordon un-holstered his MP7 and did the same.

The man was in undoubtedly in his sixties, he was bald and he had a moustache and a very pronounced beard. One thing Shephard noticed when looking through his ACOG was the golden cross on his person, Shephard quietly smirked. Even though he was technically a Catholic, he wouldn't consider himself to be a "practicing" Catholic, he found it to be a facade, there was a time when he didn't believe in God at all, recent events didn't really help much.

_"What kind of God looks down on the shit that's going on here and smiles?"_ he asks himself. The man was wielding what looked like an old Winchester rifle. He aimed it down towards the burning zombies and gave out a eccentric sounding laugh as he fired his weapon, each round hitting a zombie's head with pinpoint accuracy. When he noticed the two men, he lifted his Winchester and shouted over at them

"What is this?" he asked, his voiced echoed along the street, it sounded just like the guy both men heard in the courtyard. "More lives to save? I will keep my eye on you two, but more than that, I can not promise." his voice sounded like a hybrid of Italian and Russian, or any similar Eastern European country.

At that, the man turned around and walked back into the building, and the two men slowly lowered their weapons.

"Come on Doc, lets go." Shephard said, walking down the street. They moved to the end of the street and they were once again greeted with a wall of fire, complete with of horde of zombies walking through it.

Gordon noticed a propane canister with a valve on it against a wall. He walked towards it and turned it. The flames went out.

The men walked forward over the smouldering corpses and this time, they were met with another obstacle, an electrified fence. What remained of someone who tried to climb over was sticking to the fence, constantly spasmimg due to the current flowing through him, he looked to have been dead for some time. It instantly reminded Shephard of a security guard at Black Mesa whom he watched meet a similar fate. Shephard followed a wire which went into a second story window of the house opposite. Personally, he felt both of them were just moving too slow.

"Look, Doc." Shephard said, wiping a gloved palm over his now sweating forehead "I think that we are moving too slowly, what do you think about us moving quickly through this town? We do have a mission to complete." Gordon though for several seconds.

"Please tell me that Alyx told you about our mission." Shephard said

"She did" Gordon said reassuringly "But...she didn't give me a lot of the specifics, she said she would leave it to you. Oh, and I agree, we need to move fast."

"Great, I'll get you up to speed while we clear that building." Shephard said, pointing to the building behind him. Both of them then started to jog back to the main street.

**_10 minutes later_**

Gordon and Shephard were slowly moving up a stairwell, Shephard was explaining the Resistance's objectives, manpower and capabilities

"So that's basically it" Shephard said. He paused as Gordon fired a burst from his MP7 into a lone headcrab at the top of the stairwell. Shephard then continued

"They plan to use armor and light vehicles to encircle the city and converge on what they call the "Citadel". All we have to do is destroy the Combine's air support at a detention facility called "Nova Prospekt". Getting there will take a lot of work though, since from what I remember of their maps, the facility is about 25 klicks north-east of here, and the final five is comprised of mountainous terrain."

"What comes after that?" Gordon asked

"To be honest, I don't know." Shephard replied "We become martyrs?" he joked. Before Gordon could reply, a strange clicking noise could be heard coming from the next room, it almost sounded like a rattle snake. Shephard put his index finger over his mouth as if to shush Gordon. His sense of directio told him that the room beside them was where the cable lead too. He clipped his M4 to his the front of his PCV and drew his Mk. 23 from its holster. Fighting headcrabs and zombies room to room wasn't a suitable task for his M4A1 Carbine, headcrabs were just too small to engage in close quarters. The needed the space and mobility that only a pistol could offer. He put his left hand on the door handle and lifted his pistol up to face level. He slowly pushed down on the handle, but it was blocked by something on the other side. He looked at Gordon pointed to the open doorway ahead of him, Gordon nodded. Shephard slowly moved, and cleared the next room, Gordon was behind him. He found another doorway into the room where the sound came from. He hugged the wall and slowly moved to the other side, his Mk. 23 at the ready. In the room was what definatley was a headcrab, but it was black and slightly larger than it's brethren, and it had several black hairs growing out of its body. It turned towards the doorway, making more clicking sounds. Then it lunged at Shephard, making a screeching squeal and chopping noise that would have scared the anyone out of their skin. Shephard quickly fired a precise double tap into it's under carriage, and it dropped like a stone.

"Jesus Christ" Shephard said panting slightly after the shock, staring at the new headcrab "What the fuck is that thing?" He walked over to the switch on the wall and yanked it. The generators behind the fence were heard powering down. Shephard walked over to the new species of headcrab and nudged it slightly with his boot. He unclipped his M4 from his PCV.

"Lets go Doc" he said walking away from the crab and out of the room, Gordon was right behind him.

They got back to the fence and they used the ladder to climb over it and up to the top of the catwalks. When both men got to the top, another door burst open in front of them. Both of them reached for their weapons, but stopped when they say that it was the priest.

"Well done brothers!" he shouted over to them "Feel free to make use of my traps, but do be careful not to to fall into them yourselves!" he smiled, but it was instantly wiped off his face as he looked at something above and behind them.

"Behind you!" he shouted. He quickly fired a shot from his Winchester and a headcrab fell from a ledge above them. This one was also different. It had the same colour as a normal one, but it had longer legs and it looked smaller and thinner than a regular headcrab.

"In Ravenholm, you do well to be vigilant." the man stated, and then he walked away. Gordon looked back at Shephard and nodded in the direction of the drop in front of them. In the middle of a wall, about 10 metres above the ground, there was a walkway made from wooden planks that ran along the building's exterior wall. Gordon volunteered himself to go first by jumping over to the platform. Shephard, who had his mouth open as he was going to ask who was going first, shrugged and followed him. The two men walked along the walkway until it came to an abrupt end where something must have broken it. Gordon then jumped down to the ground and landed on an old car roof, Shephard followed, he almost lost his footing. Then, clear growls could be heard from around the corner, and a massive pack of zombies hobbled towards them. Gordon noticed that there was a thick rope connected to the car, he then noticed a motor attached to a tri-pod a few feet behind him. He went and activated it, the car slowly moved upwards and went to the level of the wooden walkway. He waited as five zombies unknowingly hobbled into its shadow. Gordon let go of the leaver and the 2 ton car crushed the zombies in its way with a very loud and unattractive _crunch_ sound. Two more zombies hobbled around the corner, but were quickly dispatched by accurate bursts from both Gordon's and Shephard's weapons. A large pool of red mixed with yellow pooled from the car in front of the two men, who quickly continued forward, avoiding it. In the next street, there was another car, but it was dangling in the air, and there was another walkway. Another idea hit Gordon.

"We can climb back on to the walkway." Gordon stated

"How?" Shephard asked

"Use the car." Gordon flipped the switch, and the car came crashing down. Shephard jumped on to the trunk and the car started to move back up. He stuck his hand out to Gordon, who jumped and caught hold of it. Shephard pulled him up. When they regained their balance, they jumped on to the platform. Then, the priest appeared on a rooftop in front of them.

"Better and better!" he shouted "I am Father Grigori. You have already met my...congregation" he snickered at his own joke, and it erupted into laughter as he turned around and walked away.

The two men climbed through a window sill into a small room. They ran through the building and went down the stairs. When they got to the bottom, they opened the door and they were back on another street. However, this one was surrounded by relatively taller buildings. When the men walked into the street, a loud, wolf like howl could be heard. Then, thin silhouettes could be seen leaping to and from buildings about 200 metres away. They were galloping like horses and they ran using their arms and legs. Then, something could be seen galloping towards the two men, letting out a huge scream. Both Gordon and Shephard fired a burst from their respective weapons and killed the new form of zombie before it got close. The men advanced slowly down the street towards the body in light of this new threat. The body's appearance looked familiar to both men; it was like the first body they encountered in the mine shaft. It had no skin but all of its muscles, bones and major organs were visible for all to see. Except this time, it had a headcrab on its head, but it wasn't an ordinary headcrab, it was one similar to the one the Grigori killed as it snuck up on them not long ago. Both men wondered that if each crab made a different variation of zombie, what would the black headcrab zombie be like?

Their thoughts were interrupted by another loud howl. Shephard was mindful of an ambush, as the pairing of faster, more agile zombies and tall buildings surrounding them didn't add together to give a nice answer. They needed to get up to a roof of one of the buildings. He looked around for an exit, and found a door leading into one of the tallest buildings.

"Doc, we need to move!" Shephard shouted. "Follow me!" He ran towards the door and kicked it open. Both men ran inside and they moved towards the roof. When they got to the roof, Shephard kicked to door down and moved on to the roof top. On a catwalk stood Grigori, except he had a different weapon in his hand, it was a SPAS-12 with no buttstock.

"Here brothers!" Grigori shouted, both men walked closer towards the catwalk.

"You two have stirred up hell!" he laughed loudly at his own pun. "Men who are after my own heart. Here, I have a more suitable weapon for both of you. Catch." He threw the SPAS-12 that he was holding over to Gordon, he then turned around and picked up another one which was leaning against the wall behind him beside his Winchester and threw it towards Shephard. Gordon tapped Shephard's shoulder with a red box with twelve 12 gauge shotgun shells in it.

"Where did you find these?" Shephard asked

"They were just lying around here." Gordon said. Shephard nodded, took the shells and put them into pouches in his PCV. He swung his M4 around so that it was on his back along with his M24. He pulled back the pump and found that the shotgun was loaded. Then, there was a loud hum of something moving along metal. Grigori picked up his Winchester

"Hush, they come. There is no rest in Ravenholm. Go, and I will meet you at the church!" he shouted. Then, he opened fire at a fast moving silhouette above him. The moving sound got louder and louder, Gordon and Shephard stood closer to one another, covering both sides of the roof.

"See that open water tower over there?" Shephard asked

"Yeah" Gordon replied

"Think you can jump it?"

"Maybe"

"When I give you the go, jump, I'll cover you." Gordon nodded. In front of him, a head poked up from where the drain pipes in front of Shephard.

_"Aw shit, Zombies can climb buildings now?" _Shephard thought. He lifted his SPAS-12 up to face level and pulled the trigger. The zombie was relieved of it's headcrab as it disintegrated into a yellow mist. Right behind it, another zombie leaped up from the pipes, but Shephard quickly pulled back the pump action and fired another shot, blowing off the zombie's arm. He lifted his foot and kicked the surprised zombie, who was staring at the place where what was left of his arm was, off the roof. He pulled back the pump again. Behind him, Shephard could hear Gordon opening fire too. He moved backwards and gave Gordon a pat on the back

"GO!" Shephard shouted. Gordon ran forward towards the edge of the roof. Another zombie emerged from the edge and lunged towards Gordon, but it was intercepted mid-air by another shot from Shephard, which sent it flying back over the edge. They were like ragdolls. Gordon leaped from the roof and landed inside the water tower, signified by the splash of water which could be heard from the roof. Shephard quickly followed and landed in the tower, Gordon seemed to be waiting for him.

"Goddamn" Shephard said, reloading his shotgun with fresh shells, "these things mean business"

"That's true" Gordon simply replied. He then got on to the ladder and climbed out. He peeked out to get a look at the area; there was another ladder on a adjacent roof top which led to a door, that where they were headed. Gordon then lunged quickly out of the tower and on to the adjacent roof top, firing at the zombies that jumped from other rooftops to intercept him. Shephard followed him out, firing and moving. Gordon found another box of shotgun shells on the ground which were swiftly taken before he opened the door. He ran inside and Shephard ran in not long after him. He turned and quickly shut the door and turned the lock. On the other side, it sounded like the zombies tried to scratch their way through the door, one even tried to throw himself at it. Gordon and Shephard shared out the shells from the box and moved away, hoping that they wouldn't break through. When they got through the building, they emerged on a low roof above a street with a wide network of alleyways. Behind them, not that far away, were the two spherical towers of the church, a distinct sign of Russian architecture. The town was silent, both men could feel that something wasn't right. The silence was broken by a flock of ravens flying away from another rooftop. From their position, the entire length of the street could be seen. At the other end of the street, a slow moving figure could be seen, it looked odd, but it was obscure and blurry from a distance since it was in the shadows. They were around 350 to 400 metres out according an educated guess from Shephard.

"Doc, cover me." Shephard said He put down his SPAS-12 and took his M24 off his back. He got into a prone position and unfolded the bi-pods. He looked through his scope to get a better view. What he saw was horrifying. This was another new zombie. The host's body looked bloated and was bent forward, and was covered with two or three black headcrabs. One was attached to it's head, while the rest were latched to his back. He looked up from his scope to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Wow, you, my friend, are one ugly son of a bitch." Shephard said.

"What do you see?" Gordon asked, his eyes squinting behind his thick glasses.

"A got a zombie who's carrying two or three of those black headcrabs on his back" Shephard stated. He looked up from his scope and noticed Gordon's difficulty in seeing the zombies. He stuffed his hands into his PCV and found a small monocular with a 4x lens.

"Here" Shephard said, tossing the device up to Gordon, who nodded his thanks looked through it and looked towards the slow moving zombie.

"Ouch" Gordon commented. Shephard flipped the safety of his rifle and took aim. There wasn't any wind, and using his mil-dot scale, he angled the rifle up by half a dot on the vertical scale. Then, the zombie did something that was completely unexpected. He put his hand back and picked a headcrab off of its back and threw it towards the two men. It landed about 100 metres in front of the zombie.

"Holy crap, he just tried to throw a headcrab at us!" Shephard said, laughing, mainly due to high amount of adrenaline in his system. He pulled the trigger. The sniper rifle fired a single .308 round and propelled the bullet to a speed of just over two and a half thousand feet per second. Before the zombie even heard the shot, the bullet penetrated the headcrab on its head and entered it's skull. It then ricocheted inside, and broke into various tiny pieces of hot lead. Some fragments left the body though the back and killed a crab on its back. The body slumped over and a surviving headcrab clambered off to where it came, squealing. The other headcrab, which was thrown, was scared by the loudness of the sniper rifle thanks to it's enhanced sense of hearing, and did the same. The sound of the gunshot echoed through the surrounding area, which prompted another loud howl.

"Shit!" Shephard exclaimed, quickly folding his bi-pods forward and putting his rifle back over his back. He picked up shotgun from the tiles of the roof. Gordon jumped down on to the street and Shephard did the same. There was another howl, but this one was different, it was deeper, and sounded a lot more pained. It repeated its self a few times, and was followed by another regular howl. On the roof on both sides of the street, fast moving zombies were galloping parallel to the men. Both men checked their weapons.

"We have kicked the hornets nest here." Gordon said

"And it's our job to clean it up" Shephard finished. "We need to find a way up to those wooden catwalks" Shephard said, pointing up to the improvised passage way 20 feet above them.

"Let's go" Gordon said. He started to run down the street, Shephard was behind him. Their adversaries cames seemingly out of thin air. The men were rushed on most sides by fast moving zombies, but all were quickly eliminated. Then, another black headcrab zombie could be seen. Gordon lobbed a frag grenade over towards its path. It exploded, sending a barrage of white hot shrapnel in all directions. The zombie was vaporized and stray pieces of shrapnel caught several other zombies.

"Nice one Doc!" Shephard said. He saw a pair of fast moving zombies moving towards them amd quickly shot them with his shotgun. "Try that alleyway!" Shephard shouted. Gordon nodded and ran ahead towards the said alleyway. In it, they found a ladder going up to a catwalk. They moved up the ladder and emerged on the woooden catwalk. There was another howl. Gordon started to theorise that the howls were in fact a warning to the rest of the zombie populace that there was a unwelcome guest in their home, because after every howl, there was another wave of attacks. Gordon was probably right, because as they jogged along the catwalk, a group of fast zombies ambushed them by jumping on to the catwalk by way of the adjacent roof tops. Both men were quick to react by opening fire, Shephard even kicked one off the catwalk when he was in the middle of reloading his shotgun. After the wave was repelled, the men continued forward. The church was only beyond the the row of buildings in front of them. At the end of the walkway, there was an open window, and again they fought through another nondescript building which someone could have easily lived or worked in 20 years before.

The trapdoor opened to reveal a rooftop which had a view of the entire town. Large buildings, warehouses and tall chimneys could be seen a few miles away. But they were nothing more than old relics, which symbolized the ways of the past, which were long forgotten in this new era of oppression and dictatorship. The rooftop was adjacent to the church courtyard, which was surrounded by a high, chain link fence topped with barbed wire. The was a short cable running from two poles; one was on the roof while the other was inside the church courtyard. At that end of the line, there was a small cable car. Standing on some rocks behind the fence was Grigori.

"Ah, there you are!" he shouted, his voice echoed through the unusually quiet area. "I will sent the cart over, it will be but a moment." He walked over to a panel and flipped the switch, the cart at the other end of the cable started to move, painfully slowly.

"Aw, you've gotta be shittin' me" Shephard though out loud.

"Patience brother!" Grigori shouted. Then, another loud howl could be heard across the town, signifying approaching wave of a fast zombie assault. Shephard literally slammed shells into his shotgun to highlight his frustration.

"Goddamn it!" he shouted "When are these things just going to back off?". Then, the zombies could be heard climbing up the drain pipes. Shephard walked over to the one on his left, aimed his shotgun at the climbing zombies, and fired. The first zombie fell and brought the other two behind it along with it. Three zombies emerged from the other pipe, Gordon then too opened fire. The cart took several agonizing minutes to arrive, and the two men were running low on ammunition. Eventually, the cart arrived and both men climbed on. The zombie onslaught was intensifying.

"Doc! Pull the handbrake!" Shephard shouted. Gordon reached out and pulled the yellow leaver outside of the cart and the cart started to move again, painfully slowly, just as before. One zombie was ambitious, and jumped towards the cart, just about grabbing hold of the edge. However, it was met with a 12 gauge shell to the face from Gordon's shotgun.

The cart slowly moved towards the church's courtyard, where Grigori was waiting for them. The cart stopped in the middle of the yard and both of them leaped over the edge and landed. Beside Grigori was a table which had a variety of ammo in 5.56mm; 4.6mm; .45ACP .357 Magnum and 12G Buckshot. There was also vials of morphine that were compatible with both HEV and PCV systems, but they were not needed. Shephard picked up some 5.56mm and .45 rounds and manually refilled his magazines by slapping in each individual bullet, as did Gordon, but with the 4.6mm and .357 rounds. Both men shared out the shotgun shells generously. Then, once they were ready, Grigori addressed them.

"Greetings brothers, we meet at last. You are to be commended for avoiding my traps. They were the work of a man who once had too much time on his hands but now only find time for nothing more than the work of salvation. I imagine you have no wish to stay in Ravenholm, so I will lead you to the mines. As for me, a shepherd must tend to his flock, especially when they become..unruly" He was about to turn, but he then added is a quiet or hushed voice "Tread lightly brothers, for this is hallowed ground."

At that, Grigori began to move around the side of the church, Gordon and Shephard followed him. He went through a small metal gate into what looked like a narrow valley. They moved swiftly, yet somewhat cautiously. Another zombie howl could be heard in the distance and silhouettes could be seen in the distance. They began to pick up the pace and they reached another metal gate. Gordon and Shephard now understood what Grigori meant by 'hallowed ground', because beyond the gates was a massive graveyard, and judging by some fragments of the Cyrillic script that Shephard understood, it was filled with people from way back into the 19th century right up to before the Black Mesa Incident in mid 2006. After that, there wasn't anyone around who had any time to bury the dead. The three men moved slowly through the graveyard, then, as if out of thin air, they were ambushed by the zombies. For the next thirty minutes, their waves of attacks were relentless, but they were held at bay and the three men advanced through the graveyard. When the attack of zombies died down, they reached another high fence, suspended by wires above it, behind it was a door to another building. Grigori lifted the fence by pulling on a lever.

"Go through the gate brothers" Grigori said. Gordon and Shephard ducked under the fence and Grigori let go, and walked over to the two men.

"Farewell brothers!" he said "I fear I deliver you to a darker place. Let the light of lights illuminate your path!"

"Thank you, for everything." Gordon said

"Yeah, thanks father" Shephard also said. Grigori shook his head

"Do not mention it brothers." There was a sound coming from behind him. Grigori stopped and looked back for a second then turned back to the two men and offered one last piece of advice

"Look to your own salvation!" he shouted. He then turned and opened fire; running towards an old crypt. He let out a long eccentric laugh. There was an explosion and flames could be seen, but Grigori continued back towards Ravenholm. The two men turned and moved towards the door that would lead them to the mines.

**I'm skipping out the small sequence in the mines and going straight to the coast in the next chapter. It's just more of the same headcrab/zombie action and nothing much interesting happens, so it can be sacrificed. You may also have noticed that I am concentrating slightly more on Shephard than Gordon, for that I apologize, but it will probably be the same throughout. As always, I can offer no ETA on the next chapter, but I am in the middle of another Semper Fi chapter, so sit tight. R&R. **


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